LITTLE ROCK — When funding dried up for North Little Rock’s street overlay program in 2007, city workers had to shift their emphasis to patching potholes rather than repaving streets.
A proposal asking voters to raise the city’s sales tax by 1 percentage point in a Nov. 8 election would restart the street overlay program, officials say, plus provide for needed improvements in drainage, sidewalks and bridges.
“We have no shortage of projects,” said Mayor Patrick Hays, who has proposed the two-part sales-tax increase.
The Nov. 8 sales-tax proposal comes in two parts: 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.
If both pass, three-quarters of the 1 percent tax would go toward capital improvements, Hays has emphasized.
Early voting will be at North Little Rock’s Laman Library, 28th and Orange streets, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. beginning Tuesday and ending next Friday.
The total sales tax, if approved, is projected by city officials to raise $15.5 million annually. From that revenue, the capital portion is to include not less than an annual $500,000 to each of the city’s four wards for street, drainage and sidewalk improvements, plus at least another $1 million per year citywide for bridge work and trails.
City voters in November 2006 approved reallocating revenue from a 1 percent city sales tax to place three-fourths of the revenue into daily operations and one-fourth into capital improvements. The division had been 50-50 since voters approved the sales tax in March 2000 that is still in effect.
Capital projects and expenses generally include streets, drainage, sidewalks and equipment. Operations expenses come out of the city’s general-fund budget that provides city services including public safety, garbage pickup, and the salaries and benefits for city employees.
The City Council asked for the reallocation after the wholesale cost for the cityowned Electric Department to buy power doubled, reducing the annual transfer available from the utility to the city’s general fund. The city’s higher cost alsoresulted in residential electric rates going up an average of 38 percent.
The shift in funding ended the street overlay program in 2007.
“We had a pretty aggressive capital program until electric rates went out of sight and we reallocated even more revenue toward operations,” Hays recalled.
Since the overlay efforts ended, streets have had to be patched more often, City Engineer Mike Smith said. North Little Rock has 400 miles of streets, and to overlay all of them would require $2 million a year over 15 years, he said.
“We do the best we can,” Smith said of the absence of an overlay program. “You just get patches and never get a smooth surface, just a patched surface. You figure needing around $2 million a year for a reasonable overlay program for a street system you’re going to maintain.”
Drainage improvements are another necessity, Smith said, especially with much of the city’s streets and culverts being 50-100 years old.
“A lot of areas in the city don’t have what we would consider today to be adequate storm drainage,” Smith said. “There are many areas throughout the whole city that have inefficient drainage. Back in the day, they didn’t build systems to handle flows that we anticipate today.”
Bridges are another concern, Hays said. The city needsto match federal funding with $3 million for a new $15 million overpass on East McCain Boulevard, plus has desires to replace the Main Street Viaduct built in 1927 between 8th and 13th streets downtown.
The city has applied for federal transportation funds for replacement of the Main Street Viaduct, estimated to cost $15 million to $20 million. The city would need to pay $3 million to $4 million as its share of the construction cost.
Hays said he would also consider the city contributing part of that $1 million for bridge work and trails annually toward the state Highway and Transportation Department’s planned replacement of the Broadway Bridge that crosses the Arkansas River. Highway officials have projected a $45 million cost to tear down the bridge and rebuild it.
“That’s not to mention other bridges we have,” Hays said of the available revenue from the tax, if both halves pass. “There’s way more needs in the way of bridges than we have dollars for.”
The North Little Rock City Council approved Sept. 16 a breakdown of priority projects that the tax would fund, but the resolutions themselves aren’t binding. Those promises, Hays said, will be the priorities for funding.
“The legislation that was adopted, I look at as a Bible,” Hays said. “It is my intent to ensure those promises that were made in those resolutions are kept.
“To me, we would do the minimum listed and then we would add to it,” Hays said. “That’s why we phrased our wording as ‘not less than.’ We would assure the $500,000 annually per ward and $1 million for roads, bridges and trails. Then where we would need to, there would be funding in addition to that.”
If voters approve both taxes, they would add to North Little Rock’s current 1 percent city sales tax that’s charged on top of a 6 percent state sales tax and a 1 percent Pulaski County sales tax.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 10/28/2011