Quorum court sets 2018 tax rates

Real and personal property tax rates the Garland County Quorum Court established for the 2018 tax year do not include the 2.6 mills the city of Hot Springs levied in the previous two tax cycles.

The general fund millage raised more than $3 million for the city’s $4.9 million public safety communications project, equipping the police, fire and utility departments with new radios and making the city a full-time member of the Arkansas Wireless Information Network. The interoperable state-run system is used by more than 900 federal, state and local agencies.

The county levied 1.2 mills for its general fund for a fifth consecutive year. The tax had been levied in support of the county road fund,

but the quorum court has redirected the proceeds to the general fund since 2014. Justices of the peace have said the shift was in response to proposals the Arkansas Municipal League adopted in support of legislation giving cities the entirety of road tax money collected within incorporated boundaries.

The state tax code requires cities and counties to split the proceeds from road taxes levied in incorporated areas.

The Municipal League’s legislative proposal was not introduced during the General Assembly’s 2015 and 2017 legislative sessions and was not listed among policies and goals adopted during the organization’s annual convention in June.

The city has said the abolition of the road millage reduces its road fund revenue by more than $350,000 a year.

The county transfers the proceeds from the 1.2 mills to its road fund. A $1.75 million general fund transfer was budgeted for the current year, and a $2 million transfer is budgeted for next year.

The county has said the city’s $7.3 million population-based share from the $54.6 million bond issue voters approved in 2016 for area road improvements more than offsets the city’s lost road fund revenue.

The county has also said the revenue loss is lessened by the city not paying per diem costs for city inmates held in the Garland County Detention Center. The county agreed to forgo the per-diem charge in return for the city’s population-based share of the threeeighths-cent sales tax voters approved in 2011 to operate and maintain the new detention center that opened in June 2015.

The city projects its 2018 share at $2.8 million, or more than 40 percent of the $6.6 million 2018 revenue forecast for the countywide sales tax.

The county tax collector will send out 2018 tax bills early next year. Payments are due by mid-October. Below are tax rates levied by the county’s taxing entities: