A few legislators who did poorly on the Conduit For Commerce Arkansas Legislative Scorecard 2025 have declared the scorecard “worthless.” … Well, duh. You would probably think the scorecard is worthless too if you are not troubled by Arkansas’ high tax burden, not troubled by the increased spending of state money to reward cronies and pick winners and losers among businesses, and not troubled by state agencies that waste taxpayer money.
NOTE: If a legislator did poorly on the Conduit scorecard, that does not mean the legislator isn’t “conservative.” They may still be conservative on social issues while not being conservative with your money.
There are organizations such as the Family Council and Arkansas Right To Life that review legislators’ records on social issues. There are organizations such as Gun Owners of America (GOA), and the National Rifle Association (NRA) that focus on legislative records involving Second Amendment rights. There are even organizations that praise legislators for giving special treatment to big business.
Conduit fills the gap by monitoring legislation affecting your pocketbook and your economic freedom.
Conduit wants to reduce the barriers that keep Arkansans from being successful—whether it’s Arkansas’ high tax burden or Arkansas’ over-regulation and over-licensing. And yes, we monitor ethics legislation too, because without stronger ethics laws, more of your tax money will flow to political cronies and special interests.
We quickly learned that many Republican politicians fail to follow the Arkansas Republican platform principles of limited government, lowering taxes, and individual responsibility.
If you are satisfied with the Arkansas Republican majority growing government just like the Democrats did before them, then the Conduit scorecard is indeed worthless to you.
Big-government special interests have the upper hand in state government because they have the access and influence. Yet there are still Arkansas legislators willing to stand firm and try to restrain Arkansas’ bloated government. They deserve praise, and that is why we celebrate those who fought hard for you by issuing our Calvin Coolidge Awards. (see those winners here) To acknowledge the work of these fiscal conservatives, Conduit For Commerce examined the voting records of Arkansas legislators and published the Arkansas Legislative Scorecard 2025.
In preparing the scorecard, Conduit used an Economic Freedom Filter, which means we examined Arkansas legislation based on whether it:
- Increases or decreases the size and scope of government
- Increases or decreases dependency on government
- Spends money we do not have
- Increases or decreases transparency in government