Public Policy Blog
The latest from Southern Bancorp Community Partners’ Policy Team on issues affecting economic security in our markets and beyond.
Teaching Public Benefit Recipients How to Fish
How Arkansas can Lessen Reliance on SNAP & TANF and Support Economic Independence by Lifting Asset Limits Read Policy Points 42 here.
Rural Economic Mobility and Wealth Building
Despite the general economic recovery in the United States, income inequality and wealth inequality are expanding. Perhaps more critically, it is becoming more and more difficult for families with lower wealth or income to achieve upward economic mobility. These two...
New CFED data showing state of family economic security in Arkansas
This week, the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) released its annual Assets and Opportunity Scorecard. The Scorecard provides a comprehensive look at Americans’ capacity to accumulate wealth by examining how well residents prosper in the 50 states and...
Banking in Rural America: Insight from a CDFI
As a rural community bank and U.S. Treasury certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), Southern is fully aware of the importance of CDFIs in rural markets throughout the country. In our recent paper, Banking in Rural America: Insight from a CDFI,...
Strengthening the Case for Removing Asset Limits on SNAP & TANF: Results of DHS Asset Limits Study
In support of Southern’s mission to create economic opportunity and promote financial security, our policy team worked to pass legislation (Act 535 of 2013) during Arkansas’s 89th General Assembly that required the Department of Human Services (DHS) to conduct a study...
New Poverty Measure Paints Different Picture of Poverty Rates in Arkansas and Mississippi
In October, the Census Bureau released the poverty rate based on the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). This snapshot of poverty in America, which varies somewhat from the standard official measure released in September, accounts for regional differences in...