Little Rock voters in a special election on Tuesday will decide whether to renew a capital-improvement property tax at the current rate and issue up to $161.8 million in bonds to pay for six categories of public improvements.
The referendum is the product of several months of discussions at the Little Rock Board of Directors that were led by City Manager Bruce Moore. The city board voted to call the election at a May 17 meeting.
City officials have asked voters to extend the tax at its current rate of three mills before they expire at the end of this year. Each mill represents one dollar in tax paid on every $1,000 of the tax-assessed value of a piece of property.
Voters will be presented with six items on the ballot and will have the opportunity to approve or deny them individually.
The six project categories and accompanying bond amounts listed on the ballot are:
• Streets: $40.5 million.
• Drainage: $40.5 million.
• Fire Department apparatus, including trucks: $19.5 million.
• Parks and recreation, including the Little Rock Zoo: $37 million.
• Construction of a new district court facility: $8.5 million.
• Expansion of the Little Rock Port industrial park: $15.8 million.
City board members have voted to pursue a stated bond term of 20 years with two issuances.
Officials expect the millage extension and bond issue to generate $154 million in total project funds, but the timing, the number of series and the cost of issuance will remain unknown until the bond sale occurs, a city spokesman said recently.
The special election Tuesday comes a decade after the last extension to the longstanding Little Rock capital-improvement millage, which has been repeatedly renewed at different amounts since it was enacted in 1958.
In September 2012, voters approved extending the millage and reducing it from 3.3 to 3.0 mills while spending bond proceeds on street and drainage improvements.
According to Little Rock Finance Director Sara Lenehan, if the city’s bond referendum is approved, the total millage rate for a resident within the Little Rock School District will decrease next year from 70.5 to 70 mills.
The reduction is on account of the successful Central Arkansas Library System referendum in May that reduced the system’s capital-improvement millage rate in Little Rock by 0.5 mills and authorized the refinancing of bonds.
Likewise, a resident of Little Rock within the Pulaski County Special School District would see the total millage rate next year decrease from 64.8 to 64.3 mills, according to Lenehan.
The portion of the millage rate associated with the municipal government will decrease from 15.6 to 15.1 mills if the Aug. 9 referendum succeeds, Lenehan wrote in an email.
On Monday, the last day of early voting, individuals who wish to cast a ballot early must go to the Pulaski County Regional Building, located at 501 W. Markham St., between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Polls will be open on Tuesday from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Residents must vote at their assigned polling location on election day.
Former Little Rock mayor Jim Dailey and Danyell Crutchfield Cummings, director of assessment and accountability for the Little Rock School District, have served as co-chairs of a campaign committee called “Renew Little Rock” meant to encourage voters to support the millage extension.
In a pre-election report filed Aug. 2, the campaign committee reported receiving $10,000 in contributions for a reporting period that covered July 7 through July 30.
The McGeorge Contracting Company as well as Kelley Commercial Partners each contributed $5,000, according to the report.
Additionally, the campaign committee reported a non-monetary contribution from the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce: use of the chamber’s P.O. box for a month.
The advocacy group Arkansas Community Organizations recently endorsed the Little Rock millage extension, emphasizing the importance of streets, parks and drainage in an Aug. 2 news release.
“Arkansas Community Organizations supports the millage extension because we see this as a positive step forward for our community,” President Donna Massey said in a statement included with the release. “Our streets and sidewalks are in need of repair, and parts of this millage will allow them to be repaired.”
At the same time, the group argued against splitting infrastructure dollars evenly among the city’s seven geographic wards.
Massey said “to benefit underserved communities, the City Board should not divide the funds equally among wards, but distribute according to our needs, which is an equitable and fair process.”
Little Rock and North Little Rock elections