Policy overhaul: The big changes shaping Arkansas
Nicholas Horton is the founder and CEO of Opportunity Arkansas, an organization working to simplify government and solve generational problems for Arkansans. Nic has worked in politics and public policy for over a decade, including a stint as research director at the Foundation for Government Accountability. He resides in Conway, Arkansas, with his wife and children. Nic recently spoke with American Habits editor Ray Nothstine.
Arkansas is receiving attention for conservative policy reforms because of the shift in recent years and decades in the legislature, and your new governor. Whether you consider it Mid-South or Deep South, Democrats held on to control in Arkansas longer than in other states in the region.
For people who are less familiar with Arkansas, what are some of the overarching challenges and areas where lawmakers need to step up going into 2025?
Horton: Arkansas is consistently underrated and underappreciated. I tell people all the time, and I genuinely mean it, that this is the best place on earth to live and raise a family. The people, our community, our culture, our values—there’s nowhere better.
The problem is state government has lagged on pivotal reforms. This happens a lot in government, where, despite cultural shifts and widespread ideological and philosophical consensus, the government seems to always be 10 to 15 years behind.
We’re still experiencing some of that here, but we’re seeing escalated progress. As somebody who has lived here my whole life and now runs a conservative policy think tank, seeing the progress we’ve made in the last few years is exciting. We’ve adopted universal education freedom and three rounds of income tax reductions.
Two years ago, we were close to being the highest for the region in terms of our top income tax bracket. Now we’re the lowest, and are still chipping away at that because we know we’re competing against other states that are reducing their income taxes. We’ve got to keep our foot on the gas.
There’s also a focus on welfare reform. Arkansas is known for being a dependency state. We want to change that paradigm. There was a point about two years ago when we had 1.1 million people—in a state of 3 million people—dependent on Medicaid. That’s more than a third of our population dependent on the program. A lot of that was driven by the COVID pandemic and misguided federal policies emerging from it. Thanks to the governor’s administration leading the country in cleaning up our Medicaid rolls, we removed more than 400,000 that were not eligible. That’s a win for taxpayers, Arkansans, and the truly needy who depend on the program.
This is related to your Medicaid comments, but a major problem for states is the growing dependence on the national government. Some even point out that a lot of the state tax cuts are subsidized by federal dollars. Refusing “free money” is extremely difficult. What are a few ways that states can be more intentional about opting out of the madness that ultimately ties Arkansas and the other states to this unsustainable spending source?
Horton: It’s a huge problem. I remind people we’re dependent in terms of individuals being dependent on government, but we’re also dependent as a state on the federal government. We’ve seen, again with COVID and the Medicaid program, where federal dollars are dangled out to the state. It appeared as a bargain to get us through the pandemic and help us stay solvent.
Then, you read the fine print and start looking at the strings. There are always strings attached; it’s just a matter of how visible they are and how long they are. So we pull the strings and find out we got a 6 percent bump in Medicaid spending, which was our money anyway. In exchange for that, we were not allowed to remove anyone from Medicaid, for virtually any reason. Even if their incomes went up, or they went back to work and were no longer eligible for the program, they could keep their benefits for three years.
That’s crazy, and it means we’re adding to the national debt at a record level. We’re still cleaning up that mess here. When you look at Arkansas and our state budget, we spend less than $10 billion out of general revenue. Our total spending, when you look at state and federal, is over $30 billion. So many policymakers think that’s terrific—it’s a bargain because they view it as free money.
There’s no such thing as free money in any level of government. It always comes from taxpayers. We already receive more money from the federal government than we send, and like other states, we have serious problems with that. It’s the reason we have a $35 trillion national debt.
Our message to policymakers around the state is to always ask questions, always pull those strings as far as you can, and be extremely cautious about taking any federal money. The more you’re dependent on the federal government, the more they control your state. Regardless of who’s in the White House, that’s not a great place to be.
Something that jumped out to me on your site is the goal to “infuse accountability into the Arkansas Parole Board and achieve justice for victims.” I know that there are a lot of people in our world who are involved in criminal justice reform. Sometimes I agree with what they’re doing, sometimes not, but we’ve seen a movement toward leniency and less accountability for criminals—even violent ones in some states and localities. What’s the goal and why is it important for parole boards to be more accountable?
Horton: This is an area where I think we’ve lost a lot of nuances in our policy culture and our conversations. It’s very easy to say, “We’ll lock them all up and throw away the key or turn them all loose because were over-criminalizing people.” There’s no nuance in many of these conversations. It’s just opposite positions, and the tendency to generalize and paint everybody with the same brush. The problems we’ve had in Arkansas are a lot more complicated.
We’re experiencing a revolving door in our state prisons because of the parole board and board of corrections. We’ve documented dozens of examples at Opportunity Arkansas of violent criminals getting eight- to 15-year sentences, and then doing two years, doing a year, doing six months, and then paroled. The ripple effects are disastrous. These are violent criminals, not people who are part of the popular myth of being locked away for smoking pot.
We documented the story of Lloyd Edward Barber III extensively. Barber was convicted of murder people and was arrested and charged with domestic battery. He has a long list of violent offenses, harming other people, with documented eyewitness examples and proof, and the board of corrections paroled him. Guess what happened? He went out only to be re-incarcerated because of his murder conviction. There’s so much nuance lost in this because the left, and even some people on the center-right, want to say, “We’re over-criminalizing people, our prisons are full, and it’s a huge problem.”
Our prisons are full, but it’s because we’re letting people out, and then having to constantly rearrest them and put them back behind bars. We’re not rehabilitating people. We’re not preparing people to come back into society and back into the workforce. You take a violent criminal who’s shot somebody or beat up his wife, you put him in jail for six months, and then you turn him loose. Do you think he’s a changed person? Most of these people are going to get out at some point. We must recognize that, and institute real programs and helpful policies.
We don’t think enough about the victims, and what the consequences are for them when we just continue to turn violent offenders loose.
Joe Profiri is a friend of mine who used to be the secretary of corrections here in Arkansas. He talks a lot about the opportunity of incarceration. We have the opportunity as a state to help prisoners acquire skills, get mental health services, prepare to reenter the workforce. If they don’t get a job, they are almost certainly returning to crime, dependency, and being incarcerated.
I do want to address the victim side of this as well because more is needed. These aren’t victimless crimes. These are Arkansans who lose family members, their lives, and function because of the trauma they’ve been through.
We talked to a lady who was run over by a car multiple times because somebody was trying to kill her. We’re going to release a video on her before the end of the year.
Making sure that victims are seen and heard and have a voice in this process is essential. Making sure that they are notified of hearings and that they have a chance to be a part of the criminal justice process. They must be notified if somebody is released.
We don’t think enough about the victims, and what the consequences are for them when we just continue to turn violent offenders loose. Opportunity Arkansas is focused on this because so many victims need help.
We recently had an election-themed issue in American Habits. How are elections run in Arkansas and are there any concerns about election integrity or other issues related to the vote? If someone is concerned about elections, is there anything they need to know about Arkansas and what’s going on?
Horton: Overall, Arkansas has clean elections. Arkansas is a small state, so you’ve certainly seen examples of a guy running for office, but his brother is on the election commission or chairs the commission, and then suddenly 25 extra absentee ballots show up, and this guy’s brother wins. We’ve seen incidents like that happen and there’s a “good old boy” culture that we haven’t fully extinguished.
Still, we’re one of the strongest states when it comes to absentee voting. It’s a strict verification process.
The other accomplishment is with Zuckerbucks and getting private money out of our elections. That was something the big swing states had more issues with, because it was obvious how Arkansas was going to vote in 2020. We did have Zuckerbucks here, and we did have documented examples of left-wing groups going into high schools, registering 18-year-olds to vote, and then shepherding them to the polls, based on where they were and the specific populations they were targeting.
They weren’t using those resources to round up votes for conservative candidates. We can’t have left-wing billionaires from the West Coast dumping money into our public election system, paying election workers, paying poll watchers, and buying equipment.
Arkansas took some strong steps to eliminate that. It was one of the few areas we needed to address, and we did. We’ve got great folks that work in our secretary of state’s office who run a tight ship. Arkansans should have confidence in their votes being protected.
Education reform has been a top issue in Arkansas. Tell us about LEARNS. It’s set up to provide universal school choice or vouchers for K–12. Why is that good for Arkansas? Is there room for more reform going forward? What’s the state of education in Arkansas and the path beyond that?
Horton: Education is something that we are spending a ton of time on. We’re committed to ensuring the LEARNS Act’s success by making sure Arkansans know what their options are and have a great experience in the Education Freedom Account Program. I’ll come back to that, but that is a place where I think there’s still work to be done to make sure we’re creating a good parent experience and that the program is as friendly as possible for the Arkansas consumer.
This is one of those places where we talked about this lapse of state government being behind the people. We’ve consistently experienced state legislators in nearly every region say, “Oh no, you could never be pro-school choice because they’re rural schools and the superintendents are so powerful, and the school district is the largest employer.”
You saw the numbers continuing to stack up in the legislature even in geographic areas where it was unexpected, but we didn’t have a governor willing to do any heavy lifting. That changed in 2023. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders came in and said, “We’re not going home until we get this done. It’s a top priority, and the most important thing we can do for the next generation.”
We were proud to be a part of that historic win. There are a lot of things about the LEARNS Act to like, but the most exciting thing is the Education Freedom Program and the fact that we now have a level playing field in our education system. We’ve worked our way from the bottom in nearly every education category toward the top. We went to the top in terms of starting teacher pay, but when you talk about choice and empowering parents, there’s no other state out there that’s doing it better than Arkansas.
No longer is education freedom only for rich kids. It’s for everyone, regardless of income, zip code, or your means. We’ve always had school choice if you were rich; you could pick up and move to a better school district, or your parents could pay for you to go to a private school. Now every child in Arkansas has the same access and the same opportunity to get into schools that are a better fit for their needs. That’s a story that’s just starting to be written. We are getting started this school year doing a slow phase, and then next school year we’ll go universal. For this school year there’s still a 3 percent cap in the program just to ease us into the transition.
About 14,000 students is the initial cap, and there were over 17,000 families that applied for the program—a tremendous uptick from where we were last year, and a huge indication of the peoples’ demand and support for this program.
This might be the most important question. To get ready for this interview this morning, I listened to Don Walser’s song, “Arkansas.” What is your favorite song about Arkansas?
For me, number one is “Arkansas” by Chris Stapleton, which is a newer song, but it’s tremendous. Then number two is a song that’s been out forever, longer than I’ve been alive, and it’s “Have You Ever Been to Little Rock?” by Johnny Cash.
Arkansas recently put up the Johnny Cash statue in Statuary Hall at the US Capitol to be one of our two statues. A proud Arkansan, a great humanitarian, and the best musician that’s ever lived. It’s a tough call between Chris Stapleton’s “Arkansas” and Cash’s “Have You Ever Been to Little Rock?” But, man, I heard that Cash song for the first time this year, and it got me. That is a great song.
This question is inspired by former Gov. Mike Huckabee talking about cooking up squirrels in his college dorm. That’s not a slight; I thought it was cool. What do you like most about Arkansas, and what is the most Arkansas thing you’ve ever experienced?
Horton: We have a great squirrel cook-off. I love the culture around Arkansas festivals, like the tomato festival, the squirrel festival, the oyster festival, and the Mt. Nebo Chicken Fry is a historic event that happens every year. We have a coon supper in Gillett. I’ve never actually been, but it’s on my bucket list. CNN is usually there if it’s an election year because it’s such a political hobnobbing event. People come from all over the country to be a part of the coon supper.
Certainly, we care a lot about high school and college football, and there is a whole culture and community around that.
This might be a little different than the intent of the question, but I met a guy who moved here from Indiana, and he had just earned a doctorate at Purdue. I was like, “Why the heck did you move to Arkansas after getting a doctorate at Purdue?”
He said, “I came and visited a friend, and just fell in love with the state.” I asked him to tell me more about that. He said it was the people and the pace. The people are so kind and warm and loving, and even if you’re not from here and they don’t know you, they always have time to stop and talk. Nobody is ever in too much of a hurry. If you go to lunch with a friend in Arkansas, you better set aside an hour or an hour and a half. If you stop to talk to somebody in the grocery store, you’re going to spend 20 or 25 minutes, and there’s a good chance you’re one degree removed from them or their family.
To that point, the most Arkansas thing I’ve ever experienced is, when there are tornadoes and tragedies, being able to go out and participate in the cleanup and see folks of every background and income level coming together. We had a horrific mass shooting earlier this year in Fordyce, and within days, people from all over the state were donating food and money and whatever it took to support our friends down there.
We had people from all over the state go there to participate in the reopening of a grocery store in Fordyce. That is what I love the most about Arkansas, and why I think I’ll always live and raise my kids here. There’s a lot of nastiness and darkness in the world, and while Arkansas isn’t immune to that, at the end of the day, it’s a place where people truly care about each other.
