LITTLE ROCK — Little Rock voters approved their first sales-tax increase in 18 years Tuesday, saving dozens of police officer and firefighter jobs on the chopping block next year when stimulus funds run out and paving the way for $196 million in road work and construction projects over the next decade, including a research park.
Voters approved two taxes Tuesday that come Jan. 1 will raise the city sales-tax rate from a half percent to 1.5 percent.
With all 71 precincts counted, the unofficial results were:
Adoption of a three eighths percent sales tax for capital improvements expiring Dec. 31, 2021 For................................12,007 Against ........................ 10,277
Adoption of a permanent five-eighths percent sales tax for general operations
For.................................12,033 Against ........................ 10,257
About 20 percent of Little Rock’s 111,855 registered voters cast a ballot, a total of 22,346 people during early voting and on Election Day.
Voters, ranging from the unemployed to the retired, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Tuesday that they had checked yes on both taxes. Several voters said they weren’t thrilled about the entire tax package, but they supported hiring additional police officers and wanted to see street and drainage improvements.
At Second Baptist Church on John Barrow Road, Ulysses Davis said he took time off work to protest and urge people to vote against the tax.
Initially, he stood with a handwritten sign but by mid-afternoon, he was using one of the professionally printed signs left behind by a member of the $500 Million Tax - Too Much! group.
“I’m just one citizen who’s concerned about this tax,” Davis said. “I came out on my lunch break, but decided to call in for the rest of the day so here I am doing my part. I already cast my ‘No’ vote.”
Tuesday’s election was the sixth time since 1981 that Little Rock City Hall has asked voters to approve a tax increase.
Voters last approved an increase in the city’s sales tax in 1993. Since 1994, shoppers in Little Rock have paid a half-percent city sales tax, the lowest sales-tax rate in the state. The city will start receiving the new revenue in March. Shoppers also pay a 1 percent Pulaski County sales tax and a 6 percent state sales tax.
The city sales tax generated $22.7 million last year while Little Rock’s share of the county tax was $38.4 million. Revenue from the taxes accounted for nearly half of the city’s $134.4 million budget.
Along with providing money to keep stimulus-funded jobs, voters saved city officials from having to decide how to cut budgets next year. The city faced a $4.3 million shortfall that did not include millions in contracted raises approved several years ago for police and firefighters.
If the taxes had failed, Mayor Mark Stodola has said the city would be faced with “bloody” and “nasty” budget cuts, including layoffs across city departments.
Celebrating the victory Tuesday at Cajun’s Wharf, Stodola told a large crowd of supporters “this is a sweet victory for all of us.”
The victory was more sweet, he said, considering the tough economy. Voters understood the “safer neighborhood, more jobs” message, Stodola said.
“The future is going to look bright,” the mayor said in a later interview, adding “promises made, promises kept.”
City Manager Bruce Moore said he would sleep much easier now, noting that anxiety levels at City Hall were high in recent weeks.
“I think [the tax’s outcome] sets the stage for Little Rock’s future for the next 20 to 25 years,” Moore said.
The tax was not without opponents. Organizers of $500 Million Tax - Too Much! campaigned in parts of the city that didn’t receive the same level of campaigning from the Committee for Little Rock’s Future.
“We obviously had the more effective campaign,” said Jim Lynch, a member of the $500 Million Tax -Too Much! campaign. “We got 46 percent of the vote with about $9,000.”
Lynch said he hoped residents would keep an eye on city officials as they spend the new tax revenues.
Despite the disappointment, earlier in the day, Lynch predicted a win for the city.
“The turnout is light, which is what the mayor wants. The smaller the number, the fewer [yes votes] he needs, but I guess that could apply to us as well,” Lynch said. “My overall impression, I bet half this town doesn’t even know there’s a sales-tax election going on.”
Melinda Allen, director of the Pulaski County Election Commission, reported few problems at the polls during the day.
Two polling sites opened 10 minutes late, one because the church was late in opening its doors to poll workers and the other because a poll worker was injured when opening a large case that held an electronic voting machine.
Allen said there were typical calls about overly eager campaigners, both for and against the tax, who needed reminding of a state requirement to remain at least 100 feet away from the entrance to a polling site.
At Second Baptist Church, where Davis protested the tax, 98 people had voted by 3 p.m. but poll workers had to send 16 people to other voting locations, particularly to a police substation on Kanis Road, because they mistakenly thought they were supposed to vote at the church.
Bertha Washington, the polling site’s chief election judge, said the Pulaski County Clerk’s office told her those voters had failed to change their addresses and had simply gone to the church because that was the last place they voted.
A number of voters showed up at the Pulaski County Regional Building in downtown wanting to vote, only to learn that the early voting site was now only offering ballots for the upcoming school district election.
City directors spent the day at various polling sites, checking up on voter totals and holding up campaign signs.
When the night was over, several city directors said the real work would begin today.
“I think now we have to roll up our sleeves and go to work,” City Director Gene Fortson said.
City Director Joan Adcock, who spent weeks meeting with neighborhood organizations and walking door to door, said campaigning showed her they have to work on trust issues some residents have.
“We have got to work on that. Whatever it takes to help the citizens understand and to trust us, to me, is the number one important thing,” she said.
The city expects to set up a citizen advisory board to oversee and review how the city spends the new tax dollars. Moore said the committee likely won’t be appointed until next year.
Assuming a 2 percent growth in sales tax collections, the city anticipates the three-eighths percent tax will raise $196 million over the next 10 years. The five eighths percent tax should generate $31.6 million a year by 2015.
City officials have said the operations tax will pay for 52 police officers and retaining 27 stimulus funded jobs, as well as 36 additional firefighters and 18 grant positions.
The operations tax will also double funding for intervention and crime prevention programs, as well as increase the payroll for parks maintenance.
Meanwhile, the temporary capital tax will replace the city’s 27-year-old emergency communications system that several cities and hospitals also rely on, as well as fund $67.5 million in road work projects that have yet to be determined. With the capital revenue, the city expects to build two new fire stations in west Little Rock and two police substations in midtown and west Little Rock, as well as a new police and courts headquarters building downtown.
Another $17 million of the capital tax will be spent on parks projects, including a $6 million community center at the West Central ball fields, formerly the Rosedale Optimist Club, on Colonel Glenn Road.
Information for this article was contributed by L. Lamor Williams and Sean Beherec of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 09/14/2011