The Arkansas Policy Foundation is saving Arkansas taxpayers millions every year by streamlining their state government. The Foundation’s Efficiency Project improved nearly every state agency while shrinking the size of state government—and taxpayers’ bill.

Saving taxpayer dollars while making government agencies run more efficiently is the laudable goal of every good elected official. But implementing an effective program to truly accomplish this is easier said than done.

The Arkansas Policy Foundation’s Efficiency Project was spearheaded alongside Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson. The Foundation’s leaders saw a need for long-term, cost-saving efficiencies across state government, and an opportunity for the Foundation to utilize their reputation as a trusted policy voice for reform. Republican and Democratic lawmakers, state business leaders, private foundations and local media have all heralded the Policy Foundation for its impressive research work. The Foundation utilized that credibility to achieve results for taxpayers.

The Efficiency Project’s goal was simple enough: “streamline state government and make it more cost-effective and citizen accountable.” Near the end of Gov. Hutchinson’s first year in office, he gave a speech instructing every state agency head to work directly with the Foundation to provide information and facilitate the reforms recommended.

A governor instructing state leaders to work with one specific think tank to streamline government is an incredible opportunity for any SPN member. The Arkansas Policy Foundation was able to capitalize on that opportunity because they had the policy and research capabilities to determine the best possible reforms, as well as the experience working with both Republican and Democratic lawmakers to actually enact those reforms.

The Arkansas Policy Foundation also overcame one of the biggest hurdles for any government reform initiative: winning the trust of the state workers implementing the reforms. Many state employees assumed the Efficiency Project would be an outside group coming in and telling them what they were doing wrong. But the Policy Foundation flipped this assumption and made employees part of the solution by having them develop efficiency ideas for their own department or position. As a result, 184 cost-saving measures were identified, and the trust of many state employees was earned.

The results of the Arkansas Policy Foundation’s Efficiency Project are truly remarkable. In 2018, Gov. Hutchinson announced his plans to consolidate the number of state agencies from 42 to 15, cutting the state’s income tax and practically abolishing the state’s grocery tax. Small changes such as including the word “efficiency” in many state agencies mission statements were combined with major initiatives like reorganizing some agency staffs to collect more than $80 million—and counting—in outstanding state tax debts. The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) estimates that Arkansas taxpayers will save $15 million a year because of the government consolidations from the Efficiency Project alone.

Because of the Policy Foundation’s work, state government leaders, state employees, business leaders and taxpayers all were able to work together to not simply cut government but make Arkansas’ government better.

The Arkansas Policy Foundation’s Efficiency Project stands as a model for streamlining state government to be more affordable, more efficient, and better for taxpayers.