City sets public meetings on priorities

Input sought ahead of vote on capital-improvement property-tax extension

The city of Little Rock has arranged a series of six public meetings beginning Thursday to gather input and identify priorities regarding a proposed capital-improvement property-tax extension, with a special emphasis on streets and drainage.

A special election in the city is set for Aug. 9 on whether to extend three mills for capital improvements and issue up to $161.8 million in bonds to fund six categories of work.

The categories are streets, drainage, fire apparatus, parks (including the Little Rock Zoo), construction of a new district court facility and the Little Rock port.

Half of the bond proceeds are expected to fund the categories of streets and drainage, with $40.5 million allocated to each under the proposal.

When voting begins, residents will be able to vote for or against each of the six items listed individually on the ballot.

The last time the capital-improvement mills were extended in a citywide referendum was 2012, when residents approved spending bond proceeds on street and drainage improvements while reducing the associated property-tax levy from 3.3 to 3.0 mills.

A mill is equivalent to onetenth of a cent, and each mill works out to a dollar in tax paid on every $1,000 of the tax-assessed value of a piece of property.

According to a Little Rock news release issued Tuesday, meetings will be held at 6 p.m. at the following dates and locations:

■ Thursday, June 2 — Dunbar Community Center, 1001 W. 16th St.

■ Monday, June 6 — Southwest Community Center, 6401 Baseline Rd.

■ Wednesday, June 8 — Northwest Police Station, 10001 Kanis Rd.

■ Thursday, June 9 — Josephine Pankey Community Center, 13700 Cantrell Rd.

■ Wednesday, June 15 — Trinity Presbyterian Church, 4501 Rahling Rd.

■ Thursday, June 16 — West Central Community Center, 8616 Colonel Glenn Rd.

At a special called meeting Tuesday afternoon, members of the Little Rock Board of Directors rejected a resolution sponsored by at-large City Director Antwan Phillips that represented his strategy for how city leaders ought to select which street and drainage projects to pursue.

At a meeting May 17, Phillips had indicated he would work with the city attorney’s office to draft a resolution on the subject.

Under Phillips’ resolution presented Tuesday, 10% of the bond proceeds for street and drainage improvements would be used for citywide programs. After setting aside the citywide allocation, each of the board’s 10 directors would be able to designate how 10% of the remaining funding would be spent.

The mayor would not be able to designate projects under Phillips’ resolution.

Phillips is one of three city directors elected at-large; he joined the board after getting elected to a first term in 2020. The other seven city directors represent different geographic wards.

Vice Mayor Lance Hines of Ward 5 said he took issue with the “dilution” of the share of money to be spent in each ward as well as the provision that each ward director determine how the money is spent.

In response, Phillips argued that city directors technically would be the ones designating how the money will be spent in response to feedback from the public meetings and from city staff.

Likewise, Phillips suggested the money allocated by at-large directors would still be spent in someone’s ward.

The resolution was defeated in a voice vote.

During the bond discussions in 2012, city officials agreed to set aside 10% of the funding for immediate or citywide projects and opted to divide the rest of the money evenly among the seven wards.