North Little Rock Mayor Joe Smith held a sales pitch for the August 8th special election. Marketed as a "Townhall", Mayor Smith gave a deceptive presentation that made the sales tax the only viable option for the city's budget.
The tax increase would go to items that the City of North Little Rock should have budgeted first but didn't. Items like Police, Fire, Sanitation, & Infrastructure have been neglected in favor of tourist projects like the NLR Trolley. In addition, city employees and elected officials received a 3 percent raise in 2016 and a 2 percent raise for this year at costs of $1.09 million and $1.28 million, respectively, for a total of $2.37 million of the $3.69 million taken from North Little Rock's savings in those two years to balance the general fund budget. A carryover of funds is an accounting measure and doesn't involve an actual transfer of city cash.
Mayor Joe Smith has made some cuts to the city budget, but some items that aren't needed are still being funded such as the empty trolley system, Central Arkansas Transit, & Mayor Joe Smith's Plaza pet project. Mayor Smith gave the bizarre stat about the Central Arkansas Transit empty bus system taking 10,000 people to work. When I asked according to who, the city mayor stated, "this is my townhall". Mayor Smith also refused to give an actual cost amount for his Plaza pet project.
In 2011, then North Little Rock Mayor Pat Hays pushed for a sales tax in another special election. The tax increase was defeated by conservative activist in a campaign that was managed by me.
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