Pulaski County justices of the peace heard the first official reading Tuesday night of an ordinance asking them to decide whether county residents should be able to consider a 0.25 percentage-point sales-tax increase for improved public transit.
They also heard from two residents, one in favor of the sales-tax increase and one against.
Justices of the peace will hear the second reading of the ordinance Dec. 15 and may vote to hear it a third time at that meeting, allowing them to vote on it then. Otherwise, they will hear the ordinance for the third and final time Jan. 26, after which they will decide whether to put the sales tax to a vote. All ordinances that aren't monetary appropriations must be read three times.
Rock Region Metro -- formerly known as Central Arkansas Transit Authority -- must go through the Quorum Court to put its special election on the ballot during the March primary election.
The agency is trying to double its revenue and budget to about $36 million to provide more frequent buses on certain routes and expand routes to more places, particularly in west Little Rock.
On Nov. 10, justices of the peace voted to advance the agency's request to the full Quorum Court, which meets on the fourth Tuesday of each month and the third Tuesday in December. The vote was 9-5, with one justice of the peace, Lillie McMullen, D-Little Rock, leaving before the vote. McMullen had asked before the vote not to be included as a sponsor of the measure.
Justice of the Peace Tyler Denton, D-Little Rock, voted in favor of advancing the ordinance to a final Quorum Court vote but said on Nov. 10 that he was uncertain he would send the tax to a vote of county residents because he wasn't sure transit was the top priority for the county.
A̶ ̶s̶u̶p̶e̶r̶m̶a̶j̶o̶r̶i̶t̶y̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶i̶c̶e̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶e̶a̶c̶e̶ ̶-̶-̶ ̶1̶0̶ ̶ Eight justices of the peace* must approve putting the tax increase to a vote.
David Ray, director of the Arkansas chapter of the anti-tax-increase group Americans for Prosperity and who lives in Maumelle, asked the Quorum Court to oppose the tax increase, arguing that Arkansas' taxes are too high already, particularly when compared with neighboring states.
Ray also argued that sales taxes by nature have a disproportionate effect on lower-income people by taxing them at the point of consumption.
"If there was going to be a tax increase, in my opinion, it should go toward one of the county's bigger needs," he said, referring to the usually crowded county jail.
Sharon Giovinazzo, president and CEO of World Services for the Blind in Little Rock, said that the tax increase would economically benefit disabled and lower-income people who can't drive or don't have cars by providing better services to them.
"It turns your tax takers here in Pulaski County into taxpayers, which is a good thing for everybody," she said.
Metro on 11/25/2015
*CORRECTION: The Pulaski County Quorum Court needed only eight votes to approve putting a proposal for a quarter-cent sales tax increase for transit improvements before voters in a March 1 special election. Because of incorrect information supplied to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, this article misstated the number of votes needed.