Arkansas voters have unfortunately approved Issue 1, a sales tax increase.
Americans for Tax Reform opposed this measure. Issue 1 will permanently increase Arkansas’s sales tax rate by 0.5 percentage points or 8.33%, resulting in Arkansas having one of the highest combined state and local sales tax rates in the country.
In 2012, Arkansas voters approved a “temporary” sales tax increase of 0.5 percentage points that was supposed to expire in 2023. Issue 1 will now make that tax hike permanent, which, contrary to many claims, is, in fact, a tax increase.
“Sadly, Arkansas saddled itself with a sales tax increase that was originally peddled by the state legislature and governor as temporary,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. “Now, the Governor decided that promises to his voters are old fashioned. He broke his word and put a referred question that would make the “temporary” tax hike permanent. For ever and ever and ever.”
For further details, see ATR president Grover Norquist’s op-ed here.