Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families: Property Tax Reform for Arkansas
ITEP Work in ActionFew people would dispute that the local property tax on real estate and personal property is the most unpopular tax in Arkansas.1 The long history of political controversy around the property tax – with its continual constitutional amendments changing previous amendments – dates back almost 50 years to Amendment 47, which abolished the longstanding state-level property tax. Yet ironically, the burden of the property tax in Arkansas is less than most other states, and has decreased in recent years even as the state struggles to find additional revenue to improve a court-determined inadequate public education system.