The city of Little Rock and its wastewater utility will join the area airport in making annual payments to a drainage improvement district that operates a levee system.
Pulaski Drainage No. 2 Improvement District maintains a 7.2-mile levee and its pumps that provide some protection to Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field as well as some nearby industrial and residential areas.
The district collects a fee on landowners' property tax assessments and uses the revenue to maintain and operate the levee and pumps. Even though the airport and city own property in the district, they had not been making payments. Some of the city property is used by the wastewater utility.
The district is struggling to generate enough money to maintain the levee.
It had sought payments from the airport since 1998 but increased its effort over the past couple years. The airport asked permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to make payments since officials said government entities are exempt from taxes. The levee district's legal counsel has said its fees don't count as taxes.
The airport decided in April to voluntarily pay the district $77,901 annually. The amount will be reviewed each year.
The city of Little Rock voted last week to pay $20,373.89 to the district this year. Future years' payments have been set at $15,706.
The Little Rock Water Reclamation Commission voted for the wastewater utility to make an initial payment of $22,046. That entity will also make annual payments of about the same amount, to be reviewed yearly.
The amounts are based on a millage charged against the estimated property value owned by each entity.
Metro on 06/10/2018