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Benton County, Arkansas · start here · plain words

See where the money goes.
Then have your say.

The whole story so far, in plain words — what Benton County spends, who decides it, and how you get heard. Every number links to the document it came from. Nothing here tells you what to think.

1 · The short version — one minute

Benton County plans to spend $123,800,625 in 2026. That is about $435 for every person who lives here.

The biggest pieces of it: County General ($68,849,468), County Road ($16,522,730), County Assessor Office ($10,088,619). Walk the whole money trail →

Everything here is checked arithmetic. Every branch of the money tree adds up to the dollar, and you can see the receipt. Where a number isn't known yet, the page says so out loud — a dead end means "not yet ingested and navigable," never "hidden."

2 · Who actually decides — the map of power over this money

The budget is adopted by Quorum Court.

Cities and school districts set their own budgets and tax rates through their own boards. See the full roster and how to reach them on the who-decides page.

3 · How to be heard — the calendar is the strategy

The budget is written October–December. Quorum court typically adopts next-year appropriations in the last quarter. A concern raised while the budget is being written lands in it; the same concern raised after waits a year. If you care about a number in this tree, that window is when it moves.

Put it on the record — here. Say what to prioritize, and why, on the priorities board, or answer an open question. When enough neighbors back the same thing, it is carried to the people who decide, and what they do with it is tracked in the open.

The records are yours. The Arkansas Freedom of Information Act (Ark. Code § 25-19-101 et seq.) gives every citizen the right to public records — budgets, minutes, contracts, the check register. Most of what this site publishes came from records anyone could have requested. The docket lists exactly which records would fill the remaining gaps.

Check the math yourself. Every number links to its source. Every branch is re-added by a program, and the receipt is public. If you find an error, that is a gift — the whole point is that it can be checked.

4 · What we still cannot see — the honest gaps

The First Issues Docket tracks every gap — the records still to pull, the pools no document yet itemizes. Each entry says what is known and what only a records request or a counter visit can answer. That open-to-answered loop is the platform's running work, in public.