calsfoundation@cals.org
November 3, 2011
Ouachita County native Benjamin T. Laney was a rather obscure figure in Arkansas politics until he was elected governor in 1944. As the state’s thirty-third governor, his greatest legacy was the 1945 Revenue Stabilization Law, which created a single general fund from which all state appropriations were made. It also prohibited deficit spending and required the state to operate on a balanced budget.