Fiscally questionable

Voters in Maumelle should vote no in the special election that mainly serves special interests. Maumelle voters have the opportunity to vote yes or no on the questions of raising the city’s sales-tax rate to pay for infrastructure improvements and to pay for one or more of the following purposes: public safety, bonds for new interchange, or bonds for sewer. This is fiscally questionable.

The fiscal soundness of these measures must be questioned because there is no published economic analysis of the impacts on existing vacant land, and if the new tax proves to be insufficient, our property taxes will skyrocket. Of greater concern is our small city taking on the majority of funding. This burden should be shared with the federal, state, and county governments; adjacent municipalities (in this case North Little Rock); and those landowners and developers receiving public subsidy for their private business endeavors.

We should also question if it’s in the best interest of our city that outside special interests offer to fund a special election to plunge us $18 million further in debt to primarily benefit special interests’ business development.

This is being sold as a traffic fix, but it will strongly increase the traffic on the Parkway for Country Club of Arkansas residents. Traffic should be addressed, but only by shared funding and for development viable in this century which does not compete with our existing business community.

Please vote no in the special election. PAT LANDES Maumelle