Telephone calls to North Little Rock residents are asking if they would support a new 1 percent city sales tax -- a poll that has caught even some city leaders by surprise.
Neither City Hall, the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce nor the North Little Rock Advertising and Promotion Commission is involved, all said Friday, though Mayor Joe Smith said he was aware a poll was coming.
The poll gauges voter support for an arts center or museum project on the city's downtown riverfront, which would be partially paid for by the sales tax increase. Half of the tax revenue would go toward the project, with the other half going to the city's police and fire departments.
A 1 percent city sales tax would raise about $16.2 million annually, according to city projections.
Smith said he couldn't reveal specifics about the project, but would say it is "as large as the [Verizon] arena" or Dickey- Stephens Park and would be on the downtown riverfront. A hotel or conference center could also be included, he said.
"I've been in conversations with this group for the last seven or eight months," Smith said Friday. "Due to the fact that I want to respect their privacy, I do not want to divulge who they are or what the project is that's being asked about.
"In our conversations, this is a large project and would take a public-private partnership to put together," he added. "We don't have the money as a city to invest in this large of a project without a sales tax. The only way I could be supportive would be if half of the penny went to police and fire."
Smith said that he received a call at his home Wednesday night, which he added he didn't expect to come so soon.
"It came quicker that I thought," the mayor said. "I knew it would be coming. I knew they were considering [a survey] as an option.
"Obviously, on this particular project, the people involved are interested in seeing if the citizens of North Little Rock would be interested in a public-private partnership for this project," he added. "I appreciate them reaching out to the citizens to see about their interest."
City Alderman Charlie Hight said Smith had recently told him to be expecting a call about a tax survey. Hight said the mayor told him about a proposed development west of the Riverfront Wyndham hotel for "a high-rise hotel and a museum, a convention center and an Arkansas Repertory-type" center. The Wyndham is located at the base of the Main Street Bridge's western leg in downtown.
In December, the City Council unanimously approved selling 5.8 acres, known as the Smarthouse Way property, for $2.53 million to a group headed by J. Fletcher Hanson III, chief executive officer of Newmark Grubb Arkansas, the firm holding the property's sale listing. At that time, Smith said that a development group had "brought an idea to us ... to put a package together."
The former industrial site, 632 W. Riverfront Drive, is west of Dickey-Stephens Park and the Broadway Bridge, both of which are just west of the Wyndham.
The development group behind the survey, Hight said he was told, "wanted to go for a sales tax to pay a portion of it, with the other half [of the tax] to go toward police and fire."
"He [Smith] called the other day and said if I get a phone call asking about a sales tax, here's the reason why," Hight said, adding that he no longer has a landline. "I didn't tell him how I'd vote."
Both Chamber of Commerce President Terry Hartwick and city Visitors Bureau Executive Director Bob Major said they received survey calls Wednesday night. They said they had no prior knowledge that a sales tax proposal was in the works.
When he was asked by the pollster about supporting a 1 percent city sales tax, Hartwick said he started asking his own questions to the caller.
"I asked him: Who are you? Where are you calling from? He said Michigan," Hartwick said." I told him I didn't want to sound egotistical but that I was the Chamber of Commerce president, and if there was a tax being done in North Little Rock, I think I would know about it. I knew nothing about it."
Hartwick said he ended the call without completing the polling and then called Major's cellphone to ask if the A&P Commission, which oversees the Visitors Bureau, was behind the survey. During their conversation, Major said Friday, he received another call on his landline from the pollster.
Major said two of three questions gauged support for a "penny sales tax" evenly split between police and fire funding and a "cultural arts center or museum," and about support for the tax if it was for a conference center.
"I got the same survey apparently a lot of people in town have gotten," Major said. "Just to call and say would you support a sales tax, I mean, what kind of a museum? How big of a convention center? Is it one that's big enough to be viable? You don't want to overbuild. It's all of those things. Most people, I think, would maybe be interested in hearing some concepts in making those decisions."
The other question, Major said, was prefaced with the statement that North Little Rock has "one of the lowest city sales tax rates in the state."
While North Little Rock's current 1 percent city sales tax is comparable with many other cities, the 8 percent combined city, state and county sales tax that consumers pay in North Little Rock is topped by another 3 percent tax added to restaurant checks. When combined, North Little Rock has the second-highest combined tax rate on meals in Arkansas, behind only Fayetteville, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported in May 2012.
"I told the caller, I know you're reading from a script, but I'm not sure that's correct," Major said.
Hartwick said the chamber has received "30 phone calls" asking if this was a chamber survey and others asked him during a chamber luncheon on Friday. Hartwick has previously proposed a small conference center in downtown North Little Rock, but that concept isn't related to what's being asked about, he said.
"I think it's good, but we know nothing about it," Hartwick said. "Usually when you want to do a poll about a sales tax you want to sell it. You need to show pretty pictures and what it's going to do. Otherwise, most people are just going to flinch and say no.
"If the mayor's that sold on it and he's seen it, it must be good," he added. "It's just sad we don't know what it is or where it is or what it's for or how long we have to pay for it."
Metro on 01/24/2015