CONWAY -- The Conway City Council is considering a proposal that would call for a public vote Nov. 14 on a proposed 0.375 percentage-point sales tax increase to finance street repairs, improvements and maintenance.
If approved, the proposed increase would bring the city's total sales taxes to 9.125 percent and would generate additional revenue of $5.1 million annually, Mayor Bart Castleberry said. The new tax would end March 31, 2023, unless Conway residents have another election and vote to approve an extension, he said. The revenue would not go to build new streets.
Under Castleberry's proposal, the revenue would be used for work on the city's collector and arterial streets while the separate $1.4 million the city now gets in annual state turnback funds would go for less-busy neighborhood streets.
The City Council had a first reading last week and will consider the bill a second and final time today. Castleberry, who took office in January, said he expects at least two public hearings before the Nov. 14 election, assuming the City Council approves the date.
Despite some street upgrades already or almost complete, Castleberry said, the city still faces an estimate of more than $45 million of work needed on existing streets.
"It is estimated that more than 70 [percent] of this will be paid by people who live outside of Conway but who use our streets for shopping and entertainment," he told City Council members.
Under the proposed ordinance, the term "city streets" can include related work involving sidewalks, traffic signals and controls, multiuse pathways, curbing and drainage improvements.
Castleberry said he and department heads looked at ways to reduce personnel costs, which account for 83 percent of the city's general-fund budget with the police and fire departments representing 71 percent of that total.
"In order to provide basic services such as sanitation, streets, planning, permitting and parks, we cannot cut personnel," he said.
Further, he said, the city was hit with unexpected general-fund expenses such as a new roof for City Hall, higher medical-insurance premiums, and new air conditioners and a 911 system update for the city's and county's communication center.
In a recent letter to Castleberry and the City Council, Faulkner County Tea Party founders Janet and David Crow wrote that they agree the city "has a problem with its streets" but favor measures other than raising sales taxes.
The Crows suggested reducing staff, paying for parks and recreation maintenance with tax revenue for the Advertising and Promotion Commission rather than general funds, and cutting back on streets' bicycle lanes "for the time being" because, they said, the lanes increase pavement and other costs.
Using tax revenue in the advertising and promotion fund as the Crows mentioned would require the commission's approval.
Castleberry said the city is "in negotiation with A&P [Commission] to rearrange some funds to help us."
But he said, "Even if it does work out ... we're not talking about a large sum of money" but approximately $230,000.
"The city engineer has determined that ... if we don't start acting on [the streets], they're going to degrade an additional 7 percent annually," Castleberry said. "We've got to have something that's going to make a big impact quickly."
The Crows also suggested the city charge fees for the use of its recreational centers and meeting rooms, increase fees for participation in all city sports, increase participation fees for tournaments and charge fees for the use of new tennis courts.
The Crows further suggested either levying a bicycle tax at the time of purchase, enacting a use tax on any bicycle used on city streets or trails, "similar to car tags," or both.
"Bikes use lanes on streets and trails [and] they should pay their fair share," they wrote.
Castleberry said in an interview that the life of some streets can be extended by 10 to 12 years if the city overlays them now. "If we continue to maintain them [after the overlay], we can increase their ages up to 20 years," he said.
Other streets need to be redone, though.
"A perfect example would be Stanley Russ Road," he said, referring to a roughly 1.6-mile east-west road in south Conway. "It's obvious that street is going to have to be cut out."
The mayor said he wants to focus first on streets that can be saved before replacing other streets.
State Desk on 09/12/2017