Issue 1, a ballot proposal, was approved by voters during the Nov. 3 election. It makes permanent a 0.5% sales tax to fund roads and highways in the state.
Complete but unofficial state results showed 653,706 people voted in favor of Issue 1 while 528,816 voted against it.
Where exactly will the money go? State officials project:
• The Department of Transportation will receive about $205 million a year
• Cities and counties will each get about $44 million a year for their roads
Will Arkansans pay more in sales tax now? No. The tax was originally approved in 2012 for 10 years. Now it is permanent. You won’t pay any more in sales tax than you do right now.
Now, let’s talk about how this relates to I-30 and other interstate expansions.
Some voters opposed Issue 1 because the Arkansas Department of Transportation intended to use a lot of the money from the tax to fund expansions of I-30 and other interstates in Central Arkansas. Among other things, opponents were concerned about:
• Neighborhood impact
• The cost of the project
• Environmental impact
But then on Oct. 29, just a few days before the election, the state Supreme Court ruled revenue from the tax could not be used for the interstate projects.
Why? The court cited the wording of the amendment that created the tax.
"The repeated reference to 'four-lane highways' and the lack of a specific reference to six-lane interstate highways means the Amendment 91 funds cannot be used for the latter," Associate Justice Josephine Linker Hart wrote. "Certainly, if the General Assembly intended that the tax imposed by Amendment 91 be used for major improvements to six-lane interstate highways ... the drafters could have expressly so stated."
What’s happening now: It’s not clear what the ruling means for the millions of dollars in revenue from the tax already spent on expanding Interstate 630.
The ruling is also a setback to the plans to remake the 6.7-mile corridor that stretches between Interstate 530 in Little Rock and Interstate 40 in North Little Rock that includes the Arkansas River bridge. The entire project also includes other improvements.
Some opponents of the project are telling the Department of Transportation to stop work on the project because it’s unclear from where funding will come. The Department of Transportation is considering options for moving the project forward.