NLR stretched thin, mayor says

At gathering, he makes case to vote for sales tax increase

North Little Rock does as much as it can with the money it has, Mayor Joe Smith told a small group of Ward 3 residents Thursday evening, but it needs a tax increase to make repairs and upgrades to city fire stations, the Police Department and streets and drainage systems.

Smith made the comments at the third of five meetings with the public that he's scheduled to present the city's case for a 1 percentage-point sales tax increase that will be on a special-election ballot Aug. 8. The next such meeting will be at noon Thursday at the Patrick Henry Hays Senior Center.

The single-issue ballot will ask voters to approve raising the city's sales tax to 2 percent to be more in line with several of the state's other cities, Smith said. One-half percentage point of the new tax would be permanent, dedicated to city operations, while the other one-half percentage point would last five years and go toward upgrades of streets and drainage, the police and courts building and the city's 11 fire stations.

Smith showed slides to the 17 people who went to the North Heights Community Center in Levy, as he has done at other meetings, showing some of the repairs needed to Police and Fire department facilities.

"We've never had enough money to fix things," Smith said. "We patch and we patch and we patch. That half-penny [for capital improvements] will put all those things back to where they need to be.

"We've been able to do more with less than any city in the state," Smith said. "I say that with confidence."

Sylvia Jones said afterward that Smith's presentation left her "very impressed."

"I support it," she said of the tax question. "We'll do it for five years, and then the half-cent drops off. We need it to improve our city and the community. It will help to support our Police Department and our Fire Department. If we don't support them, what happens to our community?"

Carolyn Reed said that she was still "pretty undecided," with her main concern that a sales tax is most regressive to the poorest residents, though she added that she would "probably" still vote for the tax.

"I think it does make some needed improvements in the city," Reed said. "I like the idea that [the new tax revenue] will be split evenly between the four wards. Usually it all goes to the wealthiest wards."

Each of the city's four wards is budgeted $75,0o0 annually for "streets and drainage," but Smith said during his presentation that those amounts will be raised to $500,000 for each ward annually if the new tax passes.

Asking for a sales tax increase is a better, and more equitable, choice, Smith said, than the city implementing a monthly garbage fee of $15-$20. North Little Rock doesn't charge for garbage or yard-waste collection. It costs the city almost $5 million a year to provide 22,000 houses with sanitation service, according to city figures. Those in the city's 7,500 apartments, he said, wouldn't have to pay such a fee.

"I call that a dead expense," Smith said of the city's sanitation cost. "It has no revenue to offset the cost."

Smith has avoided saying that a garbage fee will be implemented if the tax fails -- the City Council would make the decision -- but he has said that "doing nothing is not an option."

Reed said she takes the garbage-fee scenario as "a threat."

"I don't appreciate the strong-arm tactic to threaten us with a garbage fee, that if the sales tax fails, we'll have a garbage fee," she said. "But, when it's all said and done, I'll probably vote for it."

Customers in North Little Rock pay a total 8.5 percent sales tax. The amount includes the city's 1 percent tax, a 6.5 percent state tax and a 1 percent Pulaski County tax.

Metro on 07/14/2017

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