Arkansas

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PRESIDENT CLINTON AND VICE PRESIDENT GORE’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Arkansas PRESIDENT CLINTON AND VICE PRESIDENT GORE’S PRESIDENT CLINTON AND VICE PRESIDENT GORE’S

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Arkansas

EXPANDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL

Unemployment Down to 4.2%: The unemployment rate in Arkansas has declined from 6.7% to 4.2% since 1993.

200,400 New Jobs: 200,400 new jobs have been created in Arkansas since 1993 -- an average of 25,583 per year.

177,900 New Private Sector Jobs: Since 1993, 177,900 new private sector jobs have been created in Arkansas—an average of 22,711 jobs per year, compared to an average of just 20,075 private sector jobs per year in the previous administration.

17,700 New Construction Jobs: 17,700 construction jobs have been created in Arkansas since 1993 -- an average of 2,284 jobs per year. In contrast, an average of only 1,200 construction jobs were created each year during the previous administration.

174,000 Have Received a Raise: Approximately 75,000 Arkansas workers benefited from an increase in the minimum wage—from $4.25 to $4.75 -- on October 1, 1996. They, along with about 99,000 more, received an additional raise—from $4.75 to $5.15 -- on September 1, 1997. President Clinton and Vice President Gore have called on Congress to raise the minimum wage by an additional $1.00 over two years.

A $500 Child Tax Credit to Help Families Raising Children: To help make it easier for families to raise their children, the balanced budget included a $500 per-child tax credit for children under 17. Thanks to President Clinton the balanced budget delivers a child tax credit to 263,000 families in Arkansas.

Arkansas’ Families Reap Benefits of Deficit Reduction: Public debt is on track to be $2.4 trillion lower in 2000 than was projected in 1993. Debt reduction brings real benefits for the American people -- a family in Arkansas with a home mortgage of $100,000 might expect to save roughly $2,000 per year in mortgage payments. Reduced debt also means lower interest rates and reduced payments on car loans and student loans.

1.4% Growth in Commercial and Industrial Loans and Leases: Since 1993, Arkansas has experienced a 1.4% annual growth rate in commercial and industrial loans and leases. In contrast, commercial and industrial loans and leases fell by an annual average of 4.4% during the previous administration.

EXPANDING ACCESS TO EDUCATION

Over 10,000 Children in Head Start: 10,065 Arkansas children were enrolled in Head Start in 1999. In FY00, Arkansas will receive $48.8 million in Head Start funding, an increase of $21.4 million over 1993.

More High-Quality Teachers With Smaller Classes for Arkansas’s Schools: Thanks to the Class Size Reduction Initiative, Arkansas received $11.6 million in 1999 to hire about 299 new, well-prepared public school teachers and reduce class size in the early grades. President Clinton secured funding for a second and third installment of the plan, giving Arkansas $12.6 million in 2000 and $23.6 million in 2001.

$10.8 Million for School Repairs: President Clinton fought for and won a new initiative to repair America’s schools, providing $1.2 billion in the FY 2001 budget for urgent school renovation. Arkansas will receive $10.8 million in school renovation grants.

Over $4 Million for Technology Literacy: This year [FY01], Arkansas receives more than $4.4 million for the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund which helps communities and the private sector ensure that every student is equipped with the computer literacy skills needed for the 21^st century.

$85.3 Million for Students Most in Need: Arkansas will receive $85.3 million in Title I Grants (to Local Educational Agencies) providing extra help in the basics for students most in need, particularly communities and schools with high concentrations of children in low-income families [FY01].

Turning Around Failing Schools: Arkansas will receive $2.3 million in Title I Accountability Grants in 2001. President Clinton created the accountability fund to help turn around the worst performing schools through such measures as overhauling curriculum, improving staffing, or even closing schools and reopening them as charter schools.

$95.3 Million in Pell Grants: This year [FY01], Arkansas will receive $95.3 million in Pell Grants for low-income students going to college.

Expanded Work-Study To Help More Students Work Their Way Through College: Arkansas will receive $7.7 million in Work-Study funding in 2001 to help Arkansas students work their way through college.

Over 1,580 Have Served in Arkansas through AmeriCorps: Since the National Service program began in 1993, 1,582 AmeriCorps participants have earned money for college while working in Arkansas’s schools, hospitals, neighborhoods or parks. [through 2/00]

Tuition Tax Credits to Open the Doors of College and Promote Lifelong Learning: The balanced budget included both President Clinton’s $1,500 HOPE Scholarship to help make the first two years of college as universal as a high school diploma and a Lifetime Learning Tax Credit for college juniors, seniors, graduate students and working Americans pursuing lifelong learning to upgrade their skills. This 20% tax credit will be applied to the first $5,000 of tuition and fees through 2002 and to the first $10,000 thereafter. 41,000 students in Arkansas will receive a HOPE Scholarship tax credit of up to $1,500. 50,000 students in Arkansas will receive the Lifetime Learning Tax Credit. [fully phased-in FY2000 estimate]

Expanded Job Training to Arkansas’ Dislocated Workers: President Clinton's FY 2001 budget would triple funding for the dislocated workers program over 1992 levels. Arkansas received $9.7 million in 1999 to help 5,750 dislocated workers get the training and reemployment services they need to return to work as quickly as possible. And in FY 2000, Arkansas will receive another $12.3 million to provide job training for dislocated workers.

FIGHTING CRIME AND VIOLENCE

Violent Crime Falls 4% in Arkansas: Under the Clinton-Gore Administration, America has experienced the longest continuous drop in crime on record. Since 1992, violent crime has fallen 4% statewide. In Little Rock, between 1992 and 1997, serious crime, as indicated by the crime index, has fallen 20%, with a 39% decline in murder and 29% drop in robbery. [1992 and 1997 Uniform Crime Reports]

Juvenile Arrests Down in Arkansas: Arkansas’s juvenile murder arrests have decreased 59% between 1992 and 1997. [FBI, Uniform Crime Report, 1992 and 1997]

1,226 More Police: The President’s 1994 Crime Bill has funded 1,226 new police officers to date in communities across Arkansas. [through 1/01]

Reducing Crime with Drug Courts: Working to reduce drug-related crime in Arkansas, the Clinton Administration has awarded a Drug Court grant to the community of Little Rock. Drug courts use the coercive power of the criminal justice system to combine drug testing, sanctions, supervision and treatment to push nonviolent, drug-abusing offenders to stop using drugs and committing crimes.

$15.2 Million to Combat Domestic Violence: Through the Violence Against Women Act, Arkansas has received approximately $15.2 million in federal funds to establish more women’s shelters and bolster law enforcement, prosecution and victims’ services. [through 9/2000]

Nearly $549,000 in Grants for Battered Women and Children: In FY99, Arkansas received $549,000 in HHS’s Family Violence Prevention Program grants to assist women and children fleeing domestic abuse.

$4.1 Million to Keep Drugs & Violence Out of Arkansas’ Schools: Arkansas receives $4.1 million in FY01 for the Safe & Drug Free Schools Program, which invests in school security and drug prevention programs.

MOVING ARKANSANS FROM WELFARE TO WORK

44,632 Fewer People on Welfare: There are 44,632 fewer people on welfare in Arkansas now than there were at the beginning of 1993 -- a 60% decrease. [through 6/99]

Encouraging Responsible Choices—Preventing Teen Pregnancy in Arkansas: Since 1993, President Clinton and Vice President Gore have supported innovative and promising teen pregnancy prevention strategies, with significant components of the strategy becoming law in the 1996 Personal Responsibility Act. The law requires unmarried minor parents to stay in school and live at home or in a supervised setting; encourages "second chance homes" to provide teen parents with the skills and support they need; and provides $50 million a year in new funding for state abstinence education activities. Efforts are making a difference, adolescent pregnancy rates and teen abortion rates are declining. And between 1991 and 1997, teen pregnancy rates declined 8.6% in Arkansas.

Child Support Collections Up 139%: Child support collections have increased by $59 million—or 139% -- in Arkansas since FY92. [through FY98]

$23.8 Million for Arkansas Welfare-to-Work: In 1998 and 1999, Arkansas received a total of over $16.4 million in Federal welfare-to-work state formula grants, helping Arkansas welfare recipients get and keep jobs. In addition, in 1999 and 1998 a total of $7.4 million in competitive grants were awarded to Arkansas localities to support innovative welfare-to-work strategies. Part of the President’s comprehensive efforts to move recipients from welfare to work, this funding was included in the $3 billion welfare to work fund in the 1997 Balanced Budget Act.

Helping People Get to Work: Through the Access to Jobs initiative, the Clinton-Gore Administration is working with communities across the country to design transportation solutions to help welfare recipients and other low-income workers get to and from work. Little Rock and Pine Bluff have received a total of $508,500 this year to fund innovative transit projects.

INVESTING IN ARKANSAS’ HEALTH

Health Care for Nearly One Thousand Uninsured Children in Arkansas: In 1997, President Clinton passed the largest single investment in health care for children since 1965 -- an unprecedented $24 billion over five years to cover as many as five million children throughout the nation. This investment guarantees the full range of benefits that children need to grow up strong and healthy. Two million children nationwide have health care coverage thanks to the President's plan, including 913 in Arkansas. [HHS, Health Care Financing Administration, FY99 SCHIP enrollment data]

Helping Over 82,000 Arkansas Women and Children with WIC: The Clinton Administration is committed to full funding in the Special Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). In FY99, Arkansas received $46.2 million in total WIC grant funding, helping 82,825 women, infants and children in need receive health and food assistance. [through 8/99]

More Toddlers Are Being Immunized: As a result of the President’s 1993 Childhood Immunization Initiative, childhood immunization rates have reached an historic high. According to the CDC, 90% or more of America’s toddlers received the most critical doses of each of the routinely recommended vaccines in 1996, 1997, and again in 1998 —surpassing the President’s 1993 goal. In Arkansas in 1998, 89% of two-year olds received the vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis; 90% received the vaccine for polio; 88% received the vaccine for measles, and 89% received the vaccine for Haemophilus influenzae B, the bacteria causing a form of meningitis.

Funding for HIV/AIDS Assistance Programs: In FY 2000, Arkansas will receive $1.6 million in Ryan White Title II formula grants. This funding provides people living with HIV and AIDS medical and support services. Also through the Ryan White Act, Arkansas will receive $2.1 million for state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs), which help those without insurance obtain much needed prescription drugs. There has been a tenfold increase in ADAP funding in the last four years, up from $52 million in 1996 to $528 million in 2000. [HHS, Health Resources and Services Administration, 4/7/00]

Tobacco Plan Will Cut Smoking and Premature Deaths by 42% in Arkansas: The Clinton Administration’s tobacco proposal, combined with the recently enacted state tobacco settlements, will cut youth smoking and resulting premature deaths 42% in Arkansas by 2004. Between 2000 and 2004, 14,800 of Arkansas’s youth will be kept from smoking and 9,700 will be spared a premature tobacco-related death. [Treasury Dept., 2/99]

1,000,000 Americans in Arkansas Cannot Be Assured They Have Patient Protections: Even if Arkansas enacted all the protections in the Patients’ Bill of Rights, 1,000,000 people in Arkansas cannot be assured they have the comprehensive patient protections recommended by the President’s Advisory Commission. This is because the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) may preempt state-enacted protections. That is why the President has called on Congress to pass a federally enforceable patients’ bill of rights so that everyone enrolled in managed care may have a basic set of protections. Notably, 500,000 Arkansas women are in ERISA health plans and are therefore not necessarily protected. Women are particularly vulnerable without these protections because they are greater users of health care services, they make three-quarters of the health care decisions for their families, and they have specific health care needs addressed by a patients’ bill of rights.

CARING FOR OUR VETERANS

Invested Nearly $708 Million in Arkansas' Veterans: President Clinton and Vice President Gore are committed to caring for Arkansas' 246,000 veterans. The Veterans Administration invested nearly $708 million in Arkansas in 1999 alone. In 1999, 36,700 Arkansas veterans received disability compensation or pension payments, more than 3,090 went to college on the GI Bill, and 3,080 bought a home using VA loan guarantees.

Providing Health Care for Arkansas' Veterans: Since 1993, the VA health system has increased the number of patients treated every year by over 29 percent; treated 83 percent more homeless patients; organized approximately 1,300 sites of care delivery under 22 Veterans Integrated Service Networks; and established more than 250 new community-based outpatient clinics. In Arkansas, the VA operates major medical centers in Little Rock and Fayetteville. The Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System (CAVHS), located in Little Rock and North Little Rock, offers a broad spectrum of inpatient and outpatient health-care services, and also operates two community-based outpatient clinics in Mountain Home and El Dorado with plans for opening two more in Hot Springs and Mena. In 1999, more than 65,000 veterans received health care in Arkansas’ VA facilities.

PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT

6 Toxic Waste Sites Cleaned Up: Since 1993, the EPA has completed 6 Superfund toxic waste cleanups in Arkansas -- in Omaha, Edmondson, Ola, and three in Jacksonville. This is double the number of sites cleaned up in Arkansas during the previous two administrations. [through 3/1/00]

$11 Million in Safe Drinking Water Funding: This year [FY00], thanks to President Clinton, Arkansas will receive $11 million for the Drinking Water State Revolving Funds to provide low-interest loans to municipalities to build, improve, and prevent pollution of drinking water systems.

SPEARHEADING URBAN AND RURAL RENEWAL EFFORTS

Revitalizing Arkansas’ Communities: Little Rock/ Pulaski County, East Central, and Mississippi County were all designated Enterprise Communities in December, 1994 and were awarded $3 million each to create more jobs, housing, and economic opportunity for area residents. In 1999, Little Rock/North Little Rock was named a Strategic Planning Community.
Expanding the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Will Help Develop 1,900 To 2,300 New Affordable Housing Units in Arkansas Over the Next 5 years: Last year, the President and Vice President pushed for a 40-percent expansion in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. This year, the President and Vice President will try again to enact tax incentives to develop affordable housing. In Arkansas alone, this proposal would mean an additional 1,900 - 2,300 quality rental housing units for low-income American families during the next five years.

PROVIDING DISASTER RELIEF

$71.5 Million in Federal Emergency Assistance: Since 1993, Arkansas has received $71.5 million in disaster relief. This includes $107.2 million in assistance to recover from Hurricane Opal, which occurred in October of 1995. [FEMA, 2/29/00]

EXPANDING FUNDS FOR TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT

Over $1.3 Billion in Federal Highway Aid: Since 1993, Arkansas has received over $1.3 billion in federal highway aid, including $2.1 million for emergency relief in response to natural disasters. These funds have helped generate 59,442 jobs. [through FY99]

Over $68.7 Million in Transit Funding: Since 1993, Arkansas has received over $68.7 million in Federal Transit Funding.

Over $136 Million in Airport Improvement Program Funds: From FY93-FY99 Arkansas received over $136 million in Airport Improvement Program funds to help build and renovate airports, and, when necessary, to provide funds for noise abatement to improve the quality of life for residents who live near airports.