HOT SPRINGS -- Garland County voters approved a sales-tax supported road improvement bond issue Tuesday.
Complete but unofficial results for the temporary five-eighths percent sales tax were:
For 4,601
Against 2,637
The sales tax will secure a bond issue for road improvements that include a two-lane extension of the King Expressway from the U.S. 70 East interchange to the junction of Arkansas 5 and Arkansas 7.
Bond proceeds will pay for $30 million of the estimated $65 million project, with the state picking up the balance of the cost. Another $20 million in bond proceeds dedicated to road improvements will be divided between Garland County and its four municipalities on a population basis. The county will receive $12.3 million, and Hot Springs will get $7.3 million.
Garland County Judge Rick Davis was one of the referendum's primary backers. He and other supporters gathered endorsements after the Quorum Court voted in March to call for the special election. The statement he issued Tuesday called the expressway extension an economic imperative.
"This project is a key piece of overall transportation and economic development and growth plans by providing more efficient transport of people, goods and services, and to also remove some of the heavy truck traffic and freight traffic from our county roads and city streets," he said.
The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce-affiliated Pave It Forward Ballot Question Committee spent $45,100 leading up to the start of early voting on an advocacy campaign that focused on getting endorsements from civic clubs and other community organizations.
Davis said right-of-way acquisition for the expressway project will begin next summer, with bidding on the construction phase expected to begin in 2019. The project is expected to be completed in 2023.
Collection of the five-eighths percent sales tax will begin in July 2017, after the current five-eighths percent sales tax that is paying off $42 million in capital improvement bonds that built the jail sunsets later this year.
State Desk on 06/30/2016