Did Huck Increase or Decrease Taxes?

Marc Ambinder has written about Huck's appearance on Fox News defending the clip where he begs the Arkansas legislature for a tax hike--any tax hike. Marc's analysis is that Huck had a swing and a miss.

In the comments, however, some were defending Huck--particularly saying that he "cut taxes 94 times". So which is it, did he raise or lower taxes?

The Arkansas Times writes about Huck's low tax qualifications:

A bigger lie, this one a serial prevarication, was this: “I was the first governor in the history of my state to ever lower taxes, the first one in 160 years. We lowered a total of 94 different taxes and fees.”

That kind of claim is easily proven false. To name a few tax cuts before him: Clinton in 1991 eliminated income taxes on tens of thousands of low-income families; Dale Bumpers did the same in 1973. Clinton cut capital-gains taxes. Gov. Ben T. Laney eliminated all state ad-valorem taxes, reduced inheritance taxes and gave a homestead exemption for local property taxes.

By claiming to have cut taxes 94 times, Huckabee fixed a standard for what is a tax cut: every little exemption, credit, deduction or tax break of any kind. By that standard every governor the past 60 years cut taxes numerous times. No session of the legislature passes without a dozen or more such cuts.

But tax increases have far outweighed tax cuts in magnitude, and they did under Huckabee, too.

The major tax cut that he claimed, the omnibus income tax cuts for working families in 1997, was the program of Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, who resigned before the legislative session where it was enacted. The legislature rejected Huckabee’s plan but he signed the bill patterned on Tucker plan and thus can claim some credit for it.

Challenged on tax increases, Huckabee told Russert that the Arkansas Supreme Court forced some and that the voters had voted to raise highway taxes. Actually no, voters approved a bond issue in 1999. Half the road taxes, those on diesel, were to be levied even if the bond issue failed.

And regarding the tax burden in Arkansas, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette wrote:

Meanwhile, the average Arkansan’s tax burden grew from $ 1, 969 in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 1997, to $ 2, 902 in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2005, including local taxes.

I stand by my position that Huck's position on anything except abortion and gay marriage is less than inspiring.