Little Rock civic leaders Bobby Roberts and Jim Ross on Monday argued for and against the Little Rock School District's proposal to extend the levy of 12.4 property tax mills by 14 years to pay for school construction and updates.
Speaking at an early-evening event at Hall High School that was organized by the League of Women Voters, Roberts told the crowd of about 100 that the construction plan will not only help the district compete for students in central Arkansas but will also promote the state-run district's return to the control of a locally elected school board.
Roberts, a retired director of the Central Arkansas Library System, said it would be "a dangerous thing to defeat" the proposal.
"This is the easiest way to raise money for this school district that you can possibly find," Roberts said of extending mills. "If the citizens of Little Rock cannot pass this, if I were [Arkansas Education] Commissioner Johnny Key or I were the governor I would say, 'I am in no hurry to turn this school district back over to an elected school board because there is no support in the community for it.'"
Ross, a University of Arkansas at Little Rock faculty member and a member of the Little Rock School Board when it was disbanded in the January 2014 state takeover, argued against the tax plan. He said Key, who acts as the district's school board, and Gov. Asa Hutchinson are running the Little Rock district and "can't be trusted to take care of our money."
He cited the state's approval of opening a west Little Rock middle school in advance of a southwest high school, the expansion of charter schools, and the closure of three Little Rock schools and re-purposing of a fourth to cut costs as evidence of the state's "concrete actions ... to steal, kill and destroy" the Little Rock district.
"Until we have a democratically elected school board that can protect our kids, then we must say no to to the state's request to steal more of our money," Ross said. "We do not know what the tax extension will be used for. The ballot and the legal documents filed by the Little Rock School District say nothing about building a southwest Little Rock high school."
The tax proposal going to voters in a special election May 9 calls for extending 12.4 mills of the district's total 46.4-mill tax rate by 14 years -- from 2033, when the mills are now due to expire -- to 2047. School district leaders say the extension of the mills along with $37.3 million in state desegregation aid is meant to finance a new high school in southwest Little Rock, a replacement building at the current McClellan High site and new windows, roofs, lighting, and heating/air conditioning at most other district campuses. The extended mills would enable the district to borrow $202,645,000 that would be used to pay off existing building debt and generate $160 million in new money for the planned projects.
The extension of the tax levy would not increase the yearly tax rate but would keep the current tax rate for a greater number of years.
Ross said the district doesn't need the millage extension. Instead, an elected board with a clear plan could build a new high school by saving up the $26 million a year that is generated by the debt-service mills but is not needed to pay bond debt. The 12.4 mills generate about $43 million a year in revenue for the district, and about $26 million of that is surplus and goes into the district's operating budget.
"We can do this without the millage; we just have to make some adult choices," Ross said about the use of the surplus.
"To do it without the millage, you are going to take $26 million a year out of the operating budget," Roberts responded. "Guess whose hide that is coming out of -- it's coming out of the schoolteachers, and it's coming out of the janitorial and maintenance staff."
Audience members included Superintendent Mike Poore, several former Little Rock School Board members, state legislators Joyce Elliott and Warwick Sabin and state Board of Education member Jay Barth of Little Rock.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen asked whether the speakers would ever give their money to an investment firm that won't take direction on how the money is to be used. Isn't that the same thing as giving $600 million in investment dollars "to an investment firm called Johnny Key?" he asked.
Roberts, who described himself as a proponent of a democratically elected local school board and traditional public schools for all students, said that if the extended tax mills weren't used for construction bonds in the way that has been proposed, he would be among the first to sue.
"Mike Poore and everybody in here has said enough about where the buildings are going to be built and what the schedule is going to be for that -- that is going to be a mighty powerful document in a lawsuit," Roberts said. "The idea of breaking out very far from this is far-fetched."
The last vote of any kind on millage change in the Little Rock School District was in 2000 and was for 5 mills. The district made multiple school building improvements after that, including most recently the construction of Roberts Elementary and the renovation of the former Leisure Arts building for Pinnacle View Middle School.
Metro on 04/11/2017