Voters in Maumelle will decide three separate ballot issues in a special election Tuesday that will either raise the city's sales tax by 1 percentage point or by one-half percentage point, or not at all if voters reject all three.
Two of the ballot questions are asking for temporary taxes to support separate bond issues. Though both read as a one-half percent tax, the maximum tax for the bond issues will be one-half percent, whether both pass or only one passes.
The third ballot issue is for a permanent, one-half percent sales tax that its supporters call the "public safety" tax. The tax is primarily for the city's police and fire departments, though its revenue could also go toward street lighting, trail repairs and "backup revenue" for the two bond issues, if those funds fall short of projections.
Early voting continues 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday in the Pulaski County Regional Building at 501 W. Markham St. in Little Rock.
The biggest tax issue is for $15.59 million in bonds for Maumelle to pay the entire cost to build an interchange connecting the new Counts Massie Road extension with Interstate 40. The commonly called "third entrance" for Maumelle residents has been in city plans since the mid-1990s, but outside funding avenues haven't materialized, leading city officials to ask for the tax increase.
The other bond issue is for $2.3 million to extend sewer service into the city's north end around the Morgan interchange at I-40. Tax proponents have said commercial developers are waiting to build at both the Morgan interchange and the planned interchange off Counts Massie Road if both taxes pass.
The Maumelle City Council approved a petition for annexation last week for the city to annex 240 acres adjacent to the new interchange for Maumelle to attract development. The annexation is dependent on voters approving the tax measure.
City Council member Marion Scott-Coney said last week that, if the taxes pass, commercial development will be drawn to both interchanges, especially for the planned annexation area at the new I-40 interchange. Scott-Coney, appointed last month to fill a vacated council seat, is chairman of Maumelle Vision for the Future that is leading efforts to promote the tax package.
"We have had a lot of interest in that area," she said of the new interchange. "I absolutely think there will be development there."
Council member Steve Mosley, the only council member to vote against moving forward with the tax proposals, said he isn't sure that such development will happen or that the tax is in residents' best interests. Mosley referred questions last week to a lengthy email he sent to constituents Feb. 25 that he said best expressed his views.
Mosley said in his email that the Vision for the Future group "consists primarily of land owners and members of the development community." The organization, working through the Maumelle Area Chamber of Commerce, has sponsored two town-hall meetings, has an active Facebook page, and has run several videos of council members and other community leaders promoting the taxes.
"Much of the group will greatly benefit financially if the interchange is built, and so remember that you are not necessarily receiving objective, independent advice when they are presenting their opinions," Mosley wrote about those within the Vision for the Future group.
"The key question here concerns the long-term effect on the actual, current residents we are supposed to be serving and whether their quality of life will improve or not when it comes to traffic congestion and tax burden," he wrote. "Basically, it is the current resident who will most likely suffer if things go awry."
When asked for a response, Scott-Coney said she and others with Vision for the Future "really just care about the city of Maumelle."
"We want people to express their opinion," she said. "I always thank people for voting. I don't ask how they voted. I just say thank you for voting. It's the rule of the people, it truly is."
Mosley, in his email, said residents "might not be swayed simply with all the feel-good, slick videos, commercials, mailers and robo calls they will be getting" as the election nears.
"Parting with more of their hard-earned money and seeing our City bond debt increased by $16 million is something they don't take lightly, and neither do I," he wrote.
Vision for the Future's biggest push has been for the new interchange, with a "Fix Our Traffic" slogan prominent during the campaign. But even Scott-Coney has said that while the interchange is designed to "absorb" 11,000 vehicles by funneling some of the traffic from a crowded Maumelle Boulevard, it won't solve all of the traffic problems.
"It's not going to 'fix' anything," she said. "I don't think people from the north side of town are going to drive across town to go down it. But I think it will drain off traffic from all of those apartments and from Country Club [subdivision]."
As a voter incentive for the public safety tax, the City Council in December approved legislation that promised to do away with a community service fee if the tax for police and fire passes. The $6 per month fee, charged to households quarterly along with a separate garbage collection fee, would come off those bills starting in September after collection of the new sales tax begins. The fee's elimination isn't mentioned on the ballot.
Metro on 03/11/2018