State Rep. Vivian Flowers told a citizens' group on Thursday night she wasn't against a sales tax aimed at improving Pine Bluff, but was against the Go Forward Pine Bluff-sponsored tax on the ballot on May 9.
Flowers, D-Pine Bluff, was one of a handful of speakers at an NAACP meeting, held at Family Church of Pine Bluff, who gave reasons why they were not supporting the renewal of the five-eighths-cent Go Forward-sponsored sales tax.
She said she had some interest in the Go Forward tax when it was up for a vote six years ago because it had been described as being similar to the El Dorado Promise. That program, funded by Murphy Oil Corp., pays the cost of college for students who graduate high school in El Dorado.
Flowers, however, said she did not support the Go Forward tax in 2017 and would not this time around because the plans for using the money did not have enough emphasis on education. The El Dorado Promise, for instance, has been credited with maintaining and even growing the number of students in kindergarten through 12th grade in El Dorado, while Pine Bluff's population and student enrollment has plummeted over the years.
"I was told, 'Well, we don't have a Murphy Oil,'" Flowers said. "But we don't need Murphy Oil. We have Simmons Bank and Relyance Bank and an Industrial Park full of companies that the community and school district desperately need."
Flowers also complimented El Dorado for its growth and development.
"If you go to El Dorado, you will see the difference," she said to the 60 or so people who had gathered. "I share that with you to give you some perspective."
Flowers, like other speakers, said the Go Forward operation lacked transparency and accountability.
"For the amount of money spent and what was promised, we're not there," she said. "To come back and say 'Let us do it to you again,' that's not reasonable.
"They are not accountable to us because they are a private entity."
Flowers said the El Dorado operation, unlike Go Forward, has open meetings the public can attend and doesn't have an urban renewal agency. The Pine Bluff Urban Renewal Agency, a product of Go Forward, has been criticized for spending some $1.3 million to improve downtown and having nothing to show for the outlay of tax dollars.
Flowers pushed back on comments by others who placed some of the blame for Go Forward on white businessmen connected with Simmons Bank.
"It's not just these men and it's not just about Simmons Bank," she said. "We are citizens with a voice and a vote. If this happens, we let it happen."
Flowers said she would support an improvement tax if the plan for and oversight of the tax was transparent and there was accountability, and if the plan included a partnership with UAPB and a "Pine Bluff Promise" element similar to the El Dorado Promise, which has attracted more than 70,000 jobs.
"Right now, there's a lack of transparency," she said. "Imagine if there was a website and every penny was accounted for with who got paid and for what, and there were no rumors and no innuendo. As long as we don't have that transparency, they are not accountable."
Flowers said her "no right now is not a no forever," and suggested that an improved tax initiative could be crafted by citizens and placed on the ballot.
"We can do better with $7 million a year," she said. "We need to go back to the drawing board and come back and do it right."
Other speakers included Ivan Whitfield, former Pine Bluff City Council member and current president of the local chapter of the NAACP, Michael McCray, who handles communications for the local chapter, and Joni Alexander, former council member.
Whitfield has touted a Penny for Progress-type sales tax that explicitly states what the tax would be used for, unlike the Go Forward tax, which is a simple general use tax with its use directed to a large degree by the Go Forward board. "Nothing about Go Forward has worked," Whitfield said.
McCray showed a PowerPoint presentation, highlighting the projects promised – but not fulfilled – by Go Forward, including development of the Lake Saracen waterfront that included a plan for a Ferris wheel.
"You don't have government to provide concerts, parties and festivals," McCray said, referring to some of Go Forward's initiatives. "If you do, something's wrong."
McCray also said sales taxes are regressive and as such are harder on the poor than the wealthy.
"If you're on a fixed income, you can't avoid the tax," he said. "These people suffer and have fewer options and aren't the ones to benefit from the tax."
Alexander said the city has made major strides through other means than the Go Forward tax initiatives. The Pine Bluff Public Library was paid for through a millage increase, she said, for instance, and the Pine Bluff Aquatic Center came into being because of the Penny for Progress tax.
"Go Forward's plan is that they really don't have one," she said. "Their mission was to increase the revenue, but all they've done is increase the tax."
A second Go Forward-sponsored sales tax is also on the ballot. In addition to the five-eighths-cent tax, there is a three-eighths-cent tax, which would raise money for public safety, but Whitfield and others, including Flowers, oppose that tax as well, citing the sparse language in the ballot title that doesn't go into any specifics about how the tax revenues would be used. While the five-eighths-cent tax would sunset in 2031, the public safety tax would never expire.
Early voting on the tax proposals starts Tuesday.
About 60 people attended Thursday night's meeting of the NAACP, during which speakers gave their reasons for not supporting the renewal of the Go Forward Pine Bluff tax, which is coming up for a vote on May 9. (Pine Bluff Commercial/Byron Tate)