Hays: Tax vote not 2012 oracle

To decide about 7th-term bid next year, says mayor of NLR

— North Little Rock voters shouldn’t look at a Nov. 8 sales tax election as a tip to whether Mayor Patrick Hays will seek a seventh four-year term next year, Hays said Wednesday.

“I’m always running unless I say otherwise,” Hays said when asked whether the tax vote’s outcome would affect any re-election bid.

“I take one step at a time,” he added about a re-election decision. “I hope to do that in the first part of next year.”

Hays, North Little Rock’s longest-serving mayor, will enter his 24th year in office Jan. 1, just days before he turns 65. Voters re-elected Hays for a sixth term in November 2008 with 57 percent of the vote. In that race, he overtook three challengers.

There has been speculation for some time - as there was before his last election campaign in 2008 - that Hays won’t seek office again in the November 2012 general election and will give up the reins of the city when this term is over at the end of next year.

However, neither his age nor his health is an apparent detriment. An avid biker, Hays rode 100 miles in the Big Dam Bridge 100 cycling tour in September and said he’s dropped 15 pounds in the past few months in a weight-loss and fitness program.

“I feel good,” he said before referring back to the sales-tax election. “You always say you want to go out on top. If I did choose not to run again, I can’t think of a better way to depart. You can make an argument to either side.”

The city sales-tax proposed by Hays, projected to bring in another $15.5 million annually to the city if approved, asks voters for a two-part increase: a 0.5 percent permanent sales tax to be divided evenly between capital improvements and general operations, and a 0.5 percent tax that would expire March 31, 2017, for capital improvements.

Hays’ salary is $97,518 annually. He also serves on several national and international governing committees, duties that have taken him to conferences not only throughout the United States, but to several parts of the world.

“He’s got the easiest thing going as mayor; he’s gone all the time,” Bubba Lloyd, Hays’ top competitor in the 2008 election, said recently. “I think he’ll consider not running if he’s got somebody he knows to step in who could get elected. If he doesn’t run, it might be a crowded field.”

Arkansas, Pages 16 on 10/28/2011

Upcoming Events