Mayor Joe Smith met with a group of senior citizens center members at midday Thursday who generally responded positively to his reasons for proposing a higher city sales tax in North Little Rock.
North Little Rock voters will decide in an Aug. 8 special election whether to raise the tax by 1 percentage point. Early voting begins Aug. 1.
Smith spent almost an hour at the Patrick Hays Senior Citizens Center -- longer than he's taken at any of his three previous tax forums -- speaking and answering a number of questions from the 45-50 people in attendance, mainly senior center members.
A free barbecue lunch, paid for by the sales-tax campaign led by the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, helped to attract the curious.
While some may have arrived hungry, a few said they showed up prepared as well.
"I had a list of questions," said Joyce Williams, who asked why sales-tax revenue has been flat and about the city's efforts to recruit businesses. "I was kind of hesitant on it before. North Little Rock really does do good things. I think he sold it."
Bob Spencer also had a few questions, saying after the meeting that he had spent time researching the city's budget and the taxes that other cities charge to be ready for Smith's presentation.
"I will vote for it," he told Smith, while also addressing the audience. "We can't afford to lose the services we have in our community. North Little Rock is a great place to live. I'm not going anywhere else."
"I researched on the Internet and did comparisons of North Little Rock with other cities, and I looked at the city budget," Spencer said after the meeting. "There's not much fat in there."
The ballot issue asks voters to approve the 1 percent sales tax. Revenue from the tax, if approved, will be split, with one-half percent to be a permanent tax for the city's daily operations and one-half percent to be for five years and used for improvements to the police and courts building, fire stations, and streets and drainage. The tax is projected to raise $16 million.
The tax revenue from the five-year portion will be used to increase street and drainage funding for each of the city's four wards from $75,000 each year to $500,000 annually.
The permanent tax will help the city maintain the services it has now and avoid possible cutbacks in its number of employees, including police officers, firefighters and North Little Rock Electric Department linemen, Smith said.
"I think we did a tremendous job of cutting expenses and then holding expenses steady," since he took office in 2013, Smith said. The city has also reduced a $10 million debt to $2.4 million in that time, he added.
But the city's budget had to be increased the past two years to raise employee salaries, he added, mainly to be able to keep police officers, firefighters and electric linemen from taking higher-paying jobs elsewhere after North Little Rock spent resources to train them.
"The last two years we've really worked with the police and fire departments to be sure what we're paying them is fair," Smith said.
The North Little Rock City Council has agreed in each of the past two budget cycles to raise all employees' pay by 3 percent in 2016 and 2 percent for 2017. The raises cost the city $2.37 million in those two years that was pulled from its cash reserve, or the city's savings account, as Smith refers to it, to help balance the city budget.
Total sales taxes in North Little Rock cost consumers 8.5 percent, which includes a 1 percent sales tax voters passed in March 2000, a 6.5 percent state tax and a 1 percent Pulaski County tax.
"He's a very persuasive speaker," Nancy Baxter said after Smith's presentation Thursday. "I'm sure it will pass. People do it every time. I think we're taxed to death."
Metro on 07/21/2017