STATE OF ARKANSAS
ASA HUTCHINSON
Governor
April 19, 2017

 

One of my highest priority goals as Governor of the State of Arkansas has been to provide integrity and accountability to all executive operations by ensuring the efficient and responsive administration of the state’s agencies, commissions, and boards.

In addition to the moves already taken to consolidate agencies, streamline services and better utilize taxpayer dollars, I have named Amy Fecher as Chief Transformation Officer (CTO).  I have no doubt that her experience will provide valuable insight and direction as we take these first steps to reach our goals to increase savings, modernize operations, and reduce excessive bureaucracy. This effort will require the assistance of all state agencies, commissions, and boards.

I will prioritize efficiencies such as formulating a statewide strategic plan, centralizing state services and increasing utilization of online services and citizen participation. Increasing efficiencies to conserve state resources is the best way to return money to the pockets of hard-working taxpayers and deliver better state services to Arkansans.

As we turn our focus more and more on creating leaner government services in Arkansas, I am issuing these Guidelines and Instructions for Preparing and Submitting Agency Strategic Plans along with my Strategy for Arkansas.  Under my leadership and the steadfast guidance of Ms. Fecher, I am confident that these agency strategic plans will begin the process of transforming Arkansas to an efficient and responsive state government tied to my core values of leadership, efficiency, accountability, integrity, results, and transparency.

In the words of Henry Ford, “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” When we work together, there is nothing our state can’t accomplish. It’s not a Model T, but it’s a model that’s reliable, efficient, and makes state government work well for everyone.

Sincerely,

Asa Hutchinson

Governor Hutchinson’s Strategy for Arkansas

MISSION

Providing integrity and accountability to all Executive operations of state government by efficiently and responsively leading Arkansas’s investment in our citizens, businesses, communities, and institutions.

VISION

Grow the economy of Arkansas by efficiently and responsively leveraging state investments in human, physical, and fiscal resources, while improving the quality of life for Arkansans.

CORE VALUES

Leadership, Efficiency, Accountability, Integrity, Results, Transparency, Urgency, Excellence

GOALS

Grow: Create jobs and grow Arkansas’s economy

• Implement strategic tax and regulatory reforms that encourage entrepreneurial initiative, capital investment, and job creation
• Promote business growth, entrepreneurship, and commercialization
• Maximize access to capital for startups and growing businesses
• Build and maintain a quality state government workforce
• Conserve and enhance natural resources
• Enhance global connectivity of Arkansas’s physical, digital, and capital infrastructure
   

Educate: Support a path of life-long learning for Arkansans

• Increase student performance at all grade levels
• Expand science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and computer coding education
• Raise enrollment and graduation rates of secondary and post-secondary students in demand fields
• Increase teacher and school leader effectiveness
• Empower citizens with public school options and local flexibility for the purpose of improving student achievement
• Support the Higher Education Productivity Funding Model to bring consistency and efficiency to the State’s career education and workforce development efforts
• Align education and economic development initiatives with the needs of business

Healthy: Accessible care and active lifestyles

• Increase access to health services throughout the state
• Increase consumer choice and personal responsibility (healthy dietary choices and increased physical activity) in healthcare
• Improve access to treatment and community options for those with disabilities
• Enhance business productivity through reduced absenteeism and lower health care costs to employers

Safe: Protecting the public’s safety and security

• Implement alternative sentencing options to improve offender rehabilitation
• Promote successful offender re-entry and compliance
• Promote safe communities and stable families where children thrive
   

Efficient and Responsive: Transform the culture of state government

• Increase availability of state services through innovative technology solutions
• Focus state resources on essential services and employ enterprise solutions
• Enlist community support and public-private partnerships to leverage available resources
   

Quality of Life:

• Make Arkansas the best state to work, live, and raise a family
• Build assets which retain residents, attract workers, and welcome visitors