2026 Policy Agenda

Arkansas’s current budget process is fragmented by design, requiring more than 100 individual bills to construct the state’s annual fiscal budget. This structure makes comprehensive oversight difficult, complicates meaningful spending deliberation, and obscures the full scope of state expenditures from both legislators and the public. AFP Arkansas supports transitioning to a unified budget — a single annual bill that brings together all revenue and all spending under one roof. A unified budget would enable policymakers to evaluate trade-offs across the full breadth of state government, establish and track meaningful spending reduction targets, and provide Arkansas taxpayers with a clear, accurate picture of how their money is being used.