It was a fine night to be at the library last week when the League of Women Voters continued their long tradition of efforts to create an informed electorate.

The organization invited me to speak about the constitutional issues that may appear on the Nov. 6 general election, but my acceptance was made easier when I learned University of Arkansas political science professor Janine Parry was the other half of the program.

Parry is, simply put, a delight for a journalist to be around. She’s infectiously enthusiastic about politics, elections and how we as a people somehow manage to govern ourselves. What many Americans see as an overload of ballotbox ballyhooing and a cacophony of campaigning, Parry sees as a laboratory of how it all works. And sometimes how it doesn’t.

She demonstrates a passion for the democratic process, so it was an outstanding opportunity for me to build up my reputation simply by being on the same stage.

We were both there to talk about elections in general and the upcoming election specifi cally.

Arkansans will face measures to establish a 10-year, half-cent sales tax to build highways, county roads and city streets and one that will establish a legal system of acquiring and using marijuana bythose who obtain a doctor’s certifi cation that they suff er from certain ailments.

We certainly talked about those, but there was a good deal of interest, too, in Issue No. 2 on the November ballot. Can you remember what that is?

Don’t worry. There are probably people serving in state government who can’t tell you either.

The measure, recommended for the ballot by our Legislature, would create two new but unrelated options for the way local governments use sales tax dollars.

Issue No. 2, if approved by voters statewide, would authorize local-option elections on the creation of so-called redevelopment districts. The proposal operates on an “if you build it, they will spend” theory.

Cities or counties will be empowered to create districts for acquisition, development, redevelopment and revitalization of land, “for discouraging loss of commerce, industry and employment, for increasing employment” or getting rid of blight. These broad usesare to be defined later by the Legislature if the people create this power for cities and counties.

Where would the money come from for all this work? Sales taxes. Not a new sales tax, but via the anticipated growth of sales tax within the defined district once the debt is incurred and the “improvements” are made, ostensibly with the purpose of attracting new business.

Basically, this is designed to be a tool to lure new retailers such as Bass Pro Shops to cities willing to invest in infrastructure necessary to attract them.

You may remember the old tax-increment fi nance districts that anticipated property tax growth within districts created to rid cities of blight or create economic promise. Fayetteville used one to tear down the old Mountain Inn, hoping a new high-rise hotel would go up in its place. That never came to pass, but the city did get a new, privately owned parking lot out of the deal.

Legal rulings severely limited the attractiveness of those “TIF” districts by preserving a high portion of the targeted property taxes for schools, where the taxes were intended to go in the fi rst place. Most communities gave up on creating those districts because they weren’t as lucrative as initially imagined. This new sales tax district would allow cities to divert future localsales tax dollars to specifi c projects within the district. Lawmakers were smart enough to exclude the state sales tax from diversion.

A second part of Issue No. 2 would allow a localoption election to shore up ailing closed pension funds for fi refighters and police.

Fayetteville’s pension funds - not the one for current personnel, but a closed system from years ago that’s no longer adding any members - are among the systems considered most likely to become insolvent in the years ahead.

According to the amendment, cities and counties could call an election to decide whether local taxpayers wanted to institute a new sales tax to make those pension systems solvent.

It will be a tough sell even if the amendment gets passed. In the local case, it’s hard to imagine city oft cials calling an election for a sales tax to extend the life of a pension system in which the pensioners have played a key role in bringing it close to insolvency by increasing their own benefi ts.

Of course, that’s if the amendment passes in November. Since it’s Issue No. 2, behind an amendment that would create a half-cent sales tax for roads, one has to wonder what it’s fate is likely to be in today’s taxaverse environment.

GREG HARTON IS OPINION PAGE EDITOR FOR NWA MEDIA.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 09/24/2012