Library system to start tax push after city’s vote

It sets sights on 0.5-mill rise

The Central Arkansas Library System’s campaign for a Little Rock property-tax increase will “go live” after the Sept. 14 Little Rock sales-tax referendum has concluded, according to comments made during a library system board meeting Thursday.

The Coalition for Neighborhood Libraries, a local entity that has existed off and on during the years to support library-related ballot issues, will serve to gather volunteers in the community during the campaign to increase the Little Rock millage rate, system executive director Nate Coulter said during the meeting.

The last library-related election was in 2015, Coulter said, which he believed was the longest stretch the library system has gone without an election since before 1990.

The library system has asked Little Rock voters to approve a 0.5-mill increase in the city to support the library’s operations. If approved, the Little Rock millage rate for the library would increase from 3.3 to 3.8 mills.

The millage rate determines the amount paid on every $1,000 of the tax-assessed value of a piece of property.

Coulter said the work of persuading people on the millage increase will fall to the committee.

Madhav Shroff, an attorney with the Little Rock firm Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard, has agreed to chair the campaign committee, according to Coulter.

Shroff was unable to attend the virtual meeting Thursday, Coulter said, so Coulter instead called on another library supporter, Don Evans, to explain aspects of the campaign to board members.

In a follow-up email response after the meeting, Coulter said a small group of others was handling organizing and administrative work related to the campaign. Coulter wrote that James L. “Skip” Rutherford III, the recently retired dean of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, and community activist Annie Abrams are honorary co-chairpersons.

Evans is married to Audrey Evans, a library system board member who serves as one of Little Rock’s appointees.

During Thursday’s meeting, Don Evans said supporters were working to compile a list of volunteers. Additionally, Evans said they were working with Robert Coon, a partner with the public affairs firm Impact Management Group, to craft their campaign materials.

Evans suggested the campaign will be heavy on social media.

“We’ve sort of all agreed not to push — go public — with the campaign until after the Little Rock election on the 14th of September,” he added. “What we’re doing now is getting ready to go live after the 14th.”

Mayor Frank Scott Jr. has asked voters to approve a sales-tax increase of 1 percentage-point during the Sept. 14 referendum. A millage extension for debt service on behalf of the Little Rock School District will follow Nov. 2, and the library system’s referendum will take place one week later.

Evans said Impact Management Group conducted a poll in the spring to assess the library’s standing in the community, as well as what might happen if the library ended up on the ballot on the same day as the school district.

“The general reaction in the community is the library is held in very high esteem — very positive results from the poll,” he said.

In the next two weeks, supporters plan to discuss what they’re going to do and how hard their campaign needs to be, Evans suggested.

Coulter mused that the effort might depend in part on the results of the sales-tax vote and the “mood” of the community in that context, though he acknowledged “it’s entirely different.”