Conway council sets vote on sales tax to fix streets

Election is Nov. 12 for 5-year 0.375% levy

CONWAY – The City Council voted Tuesday night to let voters decide Nov. 12 whether to increase the city sales tax to help fund street-related repairs, improvements and maintenance.

If approved, the proposed 0.375 percentage-point increase would bring Conway’s total sales tax to 9.125 percent and would generate additional revenue of $5.1 million annually.

The increase would continue through March 31, 2023, and could be extended only by another public vote. The revenue would not go for new street construction, Mayor Bart Castleberry has said.

Six City Council members voted for the election. One, Shelia Whitmore, voted against it. Another, Theodore Jones Jr., had left after an earlier, unrelated discussion.

Whitmore said she voted no, not because she opposes the measure but because she thought there should be three, not two, readings. The City Council earlier waived the third reading.

Three public hearings on the proposed tax increase are planned before the November election.

The new revenue would pay for work on the city’s collector and arterial streets while the separate $1.4 million the city now gets in annual state turnback funds would go for less-busy neighborhood streets.

Under the ordinance, the term “city streets” can include related work involving sidewalks, traffic signals and controls, multiuse pathways, curbs and drainage improvements.

Conway resident Jared Bridgman asked why the vote was being held Nov. 12 instead of during the next general election, which will be in November 2018. Statistically, he noted, more voters tend to turn out for general elections, he noted.

Castleberry replied that the city faces an estimate of more than $45 million of work to improve existing streets. He said fixing them now could extend their lives and that the streets would continue to deteriorate otherwise.

The lives of some streets can be extended by up to 12 years if the city overlays them now, he has previously said. “If we continue to maintain them [after the overlay], we can increase their ages up to 20 years,” he said.

Castleberry said he wants to focus first on streets that can be saved before replacing other streets.