There are no centralized databases of economic development subsidies, but Good Jobs First found 3 deals worth a total of about $1.4 million in Arkansas. They include the following:

Bentonville, AR : not available
Clarksville, AR : more than $1.1 million
Searcy, AR : about $250,000

Many Wal-Mart workers are ineligible for health coverage from their employer or choose not to purchase what is available, because it is too expensive or too limited in scope. These workers often turn to taxpayer-funded health programs such as Medicaid. In March 2005 the Department of Human Services, responding to a request from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the Arkansas Times, released a list of the number of employees at the state's largest employers who received some form of public assistance for themselves or their family, mostly Medicaid coverage for their children. The disclosure found a total of 9,698 workers at the top nine employers, by far the largest number of which--3,971--were employees of Wal-Mart. Source: Brian Baskin, "Top 9 Employers in State have 9,698 Getting Public Aid," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, March 17, 2005.

For an estimate of how much Wal-Mart is costing the state of AR for taxpayer-funded healthcare, see http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/feature/healthcrisis/map.html#AR

Bentonville, AR : $185,203
Clarksville, AR
Little Rock, AR
Searcy, AR : $236,731

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