LITTLE ROCK — The Little Rock Board of Directors approved a plan Tuesday night to distribute the capital improvements portion of the recently passed city sales-tax increase.
Under the plan, 90 percent of the funding will be split evenly between the city’s seven wards and the remaining 10 percent will be designated for a quick-action fund.
The vote was unanimous, and there was no discussion during the vote. Several directors followed up with City Manager Bruce Moore after the agenda was finished to ask how that money would be allocated.
There had been several proposals on how to spend that remaining 10 percent of the projected revenue, including one proposal to spend it in the four city wards with some of the oldest infrastructure and some of the most urgent needs for drainage improvements and resurfacing projects. Several directors had complained that that plan would ignore pressing infrastructure needs in other wards.
Last year, Little Rock voters approved a 1 percentage point increase in the city sales tax, bringing the total tax to 8.5 percent, with 1.5 percent going to the city, 6 percent to the state and 1 percent to Pulaski County.
Of the new 1 percent, five eighths percentage point is dedicated to operating expenses and has no time limit; the remaining three-eighths is set for capital improvements and is to expire in 10 years.
The board previously approved a list of 2012 projects for funding, but the plan Tuesday divides the projected $65.5 million in additional capital-improvement sales tax revenue into three three-year cycles.
The board approved about $1 million in drainage projects and about $3.8 million in street resurfacing projects for the current construction year, once funds start coming into the city’s coffers at the end of March.
For the next nine years, between 2013 and 2021, each of the wards will receive about $8.4 million. If revenue projections hold true, the amount deposited in the quick-action fund will range from $2.03 million in the first three-year cycle to $2.35 million in the third cycle.
The quick-action money will be set aside to fund urgent needs such as a sinkhole or for projects that cross over wards. At-Large Director JoanAdcock pointed out that the city could use the money to pay for dams and drainage basins included in a list of outstanding city projects.
“There’s a whole list on page one of multiward projects,” she said. “This is what we thought we were looking at with that 10 percent ... dams and drainage ditches and things that affect the whole city, but shouldn’t come out of any one ward’s funding.”
“I would request we develop a process [for how the funds will be awarded] as quickly as possible,” said Ward 2 City Director Ken Richardson. “I still have questions about how that will work. I would like to have the plan developed with as much specificity as possible so that I can go out and talk to people in my ward or whenI get e-mails or phone calls, I can tell them exactly how this will work.”
Ward 2 stretches south from Interstate 630 to Little Fourche Creek and includes as boundaries South University Avenue, Geyer SpringsRoad and Interstate 530.
Moore said he felt that the spending plan, as it was voted on, included some of the details the directors were asking about.
“I don’t know how much more specific I can be,” he said. “I’ll come to you and say, ‘I think we need to do this urgent project and it falls within the 10 percent category.’ And you’ll have the discussion then before funding is granted. It’s as specific as I can tell you.”
Richardson said he hoped the projects would be vetted before they were brought to the board, but said he wanted to know the criteria that the staff would use to determine whether something was urgent.
At previous meetings, several directors asked if they would be able to suggest projects for that funding or whether the staff would try to divide it as evenly as possible between wards or only use it for projects that had an effect on more than one ward.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/22/2012