Little Rock, Pine Bluff, and Carroll County Tax Results

Little Rock voters today approved continuing a millage rate for property tax purposes that will bring in revenue for various capital improvement projects. Each of nine city projects passed by solid margins, keeping the three-point-three mills in play. Passage of the millage did NOT increase property taxes. The nine projects, all new, involve fire department buildings, police buildings, police and fire communications equipment, street improvements, drainage improvements, parks and recreation improvements, school area pedestrian safety, animal services, and Robinson Auditorium and the Statehouse Convention Center improvements. ---- Meanwhile, Pine Bluff voters today rejected a proposed one-cent increase in the city sales tax. Complete, but unofficial results were three-thousand-707 votes against the tax proposal and one-thousand-102 votes for it. Overall, 77 percent voted against the issue while 23 percent voted for it. City officials proposed the tax increase to cover a two-point-seven (m) million dollar budget shortfall. If approved, the tax would have generated about six-and-a-half (m) million dollars. Tax revenues also would have been used for city infrastructure and to retire bonds, replenish the reserve fund and encourage economic development. --- And in Carroll County, voters also rejected a proposed one-cent sales tax increase. A penny increase in the Carroll County sales tax would have generated about three (m) million dollars for the general fund. The county would have kept one-point-six (m) million dollars, with cities splitting most of the rest. In complete but unofficial results, Carroll County voters rejected the proposal by a vote of two-thousand-41 to one-thousand-122. Posted by Mike Hellgren