By Caleb Taylor

What counties are leading the rest of the state when it comes to online transparency in 2020?

You can find out through the just-released third annual “Access Arkansas: County Web Transparency” from the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics, co-authored by ACRE Policy Analysts Joyce Ajayi and Dr. Mavuto Kalulu.

Improvement

The index’s authors begin the report by noting improvement on overall transparency scores since the previous report.

In 2018, counties published about 15 percent of the important public information included in the ACRE index. In 2019 they published about 21 percent. In 2020, they published about 31 percent.��

That means the amount of information available online about county governments has more than doubled since the inaugural edition of the ACRE index.

Ajayi and Kalulu write:

The current index shows that, on average, Arkansas counties are publishing about 31 percent of the important information included in our index compared to about 21 percent in 2019 and 15 percent in 2018. We acknowledge that one factor contributing to the improvement could be that we had more researchers searching for information on the county websites this year than we did in the previous two years. This increase in our research resources may have increased our chances of finding the information. However, we attribute the improvement mainly to two other factors.”

In the 2018 edition of the report, Kalulu, Ajayi and ACRE Program Coordinator Terra Aquia suggested state legislators consider requiring county governments to post their budgets online by amending state law. , passed into law in March, 2019 does just that. The law requires all Arkansas counties to post their annual budget on a website owned or maintained by the county, the state, or the Association of Arkansas Counties. Counties are already required to publish such information in their local newspaper.

Ajayi and Kalulu write:

The law states that beginning in January 2020, counties must publish financial information on web platforms, including Facebook. This law has improved fiscal transparency. We commend the law’s lead sponsor, Rep. Spencer Hawks (R-District 70), for his efforts toward the achievement. We also commend the Association of Arkansas Counties for providing an alternative web platform for publishing county financial information.” 

Since the inaugural edition of the transparency index in 2018, many counties have taken the initiative to improve their online transparency.��

Ajayi and Kalulu write:

The publication of our report has encouraged counties to involve us in their transparency efforts. For example, Faulkner County engaged our policy analysts to testify in favor of an ordinance to publish contract bidding information online. Benton County invited us to discuss specific areas where the county can improve transparency. Over the last year, we interacted with several county officials inquiring how they could enhance their counties’ transparency. As a result, we are pleased to report that several counties have made tremendous web transparency improvements.”

The index ranks all Arkansas counties by how much financial, political and administrative information their websites contain.

Top 10 Most Web-Transparent Counties

In 2018 and 2019, Washington County garnered the highest online transparency score. In 2020, Washington tied with Benton County for the top score.��

Ajayi and Kalulu write:

Scoring highest on all three types of transparency, Benton County (0.952) and Washington County (0.952) stand out as the most web-transparent counties in Arkansas, as figure 1 shows. While there used to be a noticeable gap between Washington County and Arkansas’s other 74 counties, some counties have made improvements to shrink that gap.”

Ajayi and Kalulu also note that “compared to 2019, Benton County has improved by 0.190 points, which means that it publishes 19 percent more information online than last year.”

Ajayi and Kalulu write:

Last year, only eight counties—Washington, Benton, Garland, Sebastian, Pulaski, Faulkner, Saline, and Columbia—had an overall score greater than 0.500. The current index shows that all top 10 counties have a score greater than 0.500. Three of these counties—Craighead, Cross, and Pope—scored below 0.500 last year. Less encouraging is that 79 percent of Arkansas counties (59 out of 75) still score less than 0.500, which means these counties are publishing less than 50 percent of the important public information included in our index. Thus, despite the improvements some counties have made, most counties still have a long way to go to improve their web transparency. A possible reason for not publishing information may include a lack of resources and personnel with knowledge of how to do so. However, a 2018 United States Public Interest Research Group report notes that as technology improves, governments may be able to lower the costs of creating and maintaining their websites. Despite this possible barrier, counties should consider that a transparent government’s benefits, such as improved relationships between government officials and residents, will likely outweigh the costs of developing online resources.”

You can read the entire third edition of “Access Arkansas: County Web Transparency” here.

For more of our research on transparency, go here.

By Caleb Taylor

ACRE Policy Analysts Joyce Ajayi and Dr. Mavuto Kalulu spoke to the Faulkner County Tea Party on March 5 about their latest research on online transparency in Faulkner County and other county governments in Arkansas.

Faulkner County climbed from the 8th most online-transparent county in 2018 to 6th in 2019. This comes from the second annual Online Transparency Index from the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics, co-authored by Kalulu and Ajayi, released in December.

Ajayi said:

We want to incentivize counties that are doing well to do better. We want to incentivize counties that aren’t doing anything at all to follow best practices from other counties.” 

Overall, Arkansas counties improved their online transparency since the inaugural index was released in 2018. In 2018, four counties published at least 50 percent of the important public information included in our index. In 2019, eight counties do.

Kalulu said:

We’ve noticed some change. It’s not a big change as we might’ve hoped for, but we understand that this is a process that will take time.”

Why are these findings important?

Transparency in government tends to reduce corruption, instills fiscal responsibility and improve the relationship between government and its residents.

Ajayi said:

Transparency is not the end…it’s the means to the end. We want officials to be accountable. We want to improve economic performance. If there’s no transparency, there’s no way to achieve all of this.” 

Interested in how your county’s online transparency ranks compared to the rest of the state? You can find out here.��

To learn about a recent law that will make county governments in Arkansas more transparent, check out ACRE Policy Analyst Dr. Mavuto Kalulu discussing the benefits of in an op-ed “,” published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on December 27, 2019.

To find out what one law that went into effect in 2020 will make county governments in Arkansas more transparent check out ACRE Policy Analyst Dr. Mavuto Kalulu discussing the benefits of in an op-ed “,” published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on December 27, 2019.

For more of our research on transparency, go here.

By Caleb Taylor

Arkansas media outlets are taking notice of the big changes in which counties rank highest for online transparency. Faulkner County climbed from 8th most online-transparent county in 2018 to 6th in 2019, while Independence County tumbled all the way from 17th place to 71st.��

These rankings come from the second annual Online Transparency Index from the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics, co-authored by ACRE Policy Analysts Dr. Mavuto Kalulu and Joyce Ajayi, released last month.

Two media outlets covered how their counties’ online transparency rankings changed in the second annual Online Transparency Index from the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics, co-authored by ACRE Policy Analysts Dr. Mavuto Kalulu and Joyce Ajayi, released last month.

Faulkner County 

An article in the Log Cabin Democrat by Jeanette Anderton published on Dec. 27, 2019 entitled “” detailed the improvements Faulkner County made from the 2018 to the 2019 index.��

From the Log Cabin Democrat:

The Arkansas Center for Research in Economics (ACRE) at the University of Central Arkansas released its second annual county web transparency report which indicates Faulkner County has improved its transparency.��While the county scored below 0.500 in 2018, it improved to 0.599 in 2019, making it the sixth most transparent county in the state.��Faulkner County was named one of the top 10 most-improved counties in the report – going from 0.365 in 2018 to 0.599 this year.”

Independence County 

In an article in the Oddfellow by Rachael Sowers published on Dec. 20, 2019 entitled “,” analyzed Independence County’s decline in the rankings in 2019.

Sowers reports:

Independence County went from a transparency ranking of 17th in the state in 2018 to 71st in the state in 2019, decreasing from a score of 0.231 down to 0.029 for transparency of important public information online, according to a report published by the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics at the University of Central Arkansas.��The rankings and scores are determined by ‘how much financial, political and administrative information their websites contain.’ Currently, the county’s website gives an error when accessed.”

Transparency in government tends to reduce corruption, improve fiscal responsibility and improve the relationship between government and its residents.

Interested in how your county’s online transparency ranks compared to the rest of the state? You can find out here. To find out what one law that went into effect in 2020 that will make county governments in Arkansas more transparent check out ACRE Policy Analyst Dr. Mavuto Kalulu discussing the benefits of in an op-ed “,” published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on December 27, 2019.

For more of our research on transparency, go here.

By Caleb Taylor

Who made the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics’s  ‘nice list’ when it comes to transparency in 2019?

You can find out through the just-released second annual Transparency Index from the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics, co-authored by ACRE Policy Analysts Dr. Mavuto Kalulu and Joyce Ajayi.

In 2018 four counties published at least 50 percent of the important public information included in our index. In 2019 eight counties do.

The index’s authors begin the report by noting some improvement on overall transparency scores since the previous report.

This edition also highlights the counties that have improved the most since last year. Our assessment shows some improvement in overall transparency. For Arkansas counties as a whole, we find that, as in 2018, political transparency is the best, followed by fiscal then administrative transparency. Fiscal transparency improved the most, followed by political then administrative transparency. The current index shows that, on average, Arkansas counties are publishing about 21 percent of the important information included in our index compared to about 15 percent in 2018.”

That’s an average of over one third since just last year — and that’s very encouraging.

The index ranks all Arkansas counties by how much financial, political and administrative information their websites contain.

According to the report:

Fiscal transparency is the disclosure of how governments spend tax dollars. Administrative transparency relates to the openness of government activities and processes, while political transparency relates to the disclosure of information about elected officials and openness of elected bodies such as quorum courts — the legislative body of county governments.”

Top Performers

In the 2018 report, Washington County received the highest overall transparency score, with Pulaski, Benton, Garland and Baxter rounding out the top five. In 2019, Washington County once again garnered the highest transparency score. Benton, Garland and Pulaski counties once again remained in the top five while Sebastian County improved from seventh in 2018 to fourth in 2019.

Most-Improved

Also of interest are the counties that have improved the most since the 2018 index.��

From the report:

Jefferson County improved the most, by 0.357, which is equivalent to adding close to 36 percent of the important public information included in the index. In terms of ranking, Jefferson County moved from ranking 50th in the state in 2018 to 12th in 2019. One reason for this improvement is that Jefferson County now has its own stand-alone website. Previously, it published only a few pieces of information on the Arkansas.gov platform. Other counties worthy of mention are Cross and Ashley, which improved by 0.330 and 0.323 points, respectively. This improvement made Cross County jump from 28th in 2018 to 11th in 2019; Ashley leaped from 52nd to 18th. Three counties (Sebastian, Saline, and Faulkner) that were in the top 10 in 2018 are among the top 10 most-improved counties in overall transparency, showing that even when counties have relatively high rankings, they can make important improvements.”

Legislative Change

The inaugural index was produced by ACRE Policy Analyst Dr. Mavuto Kalulu, Program Coordinator Terra Aquia and ACRE Policy Analyst Joyce Ajayi.

Kalulu, Ajayi and Aquia in the 2018 edition suggested state legislators consider requiring county governments to post their budgets online by amending state law. , passed into law in March, 2019 does just that. The law requires all Arkansas counties to post their annual budget on a website owned or maintained by the county, the state, or the Association of Arkansas Counties beginning on January 1, 2020. Counties are already required to publish such information in their local newspaper. Kalulu spoke in favor of the changes before the Arkansas House City, County and Local Affairs Committee on March 7.

For more of our research on transparency, go here.