A committee asking city voters to authorize up to $8.5 million in debt for the revamping of a youth baseball complex has been formed.
Home Run for Hot Springs organizers filed the committee's initial paperwork with the Arkansas Ethics Commission June 24, more than a week before the Hot Springs Board of Directors scheduled a Sept. 10 special election asking voters to issue bonds secured by the Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission's 3 percent hospitality tax.
The bonds will finance the construction of five fields at the Majestic Baseball Park Complex at the former Boys & Girls Club of Hot Springs. The club's board of directors donated the complex to the ad commission prior to dissolving last year. The dissolution followed financial difficulties that led to the Boys & Girls Club of America revoking the local club's charter.
The ethics commission has yet to post any financial reports for the advocacy committee. The initial filing lists Jonathan Hamner, a principal owner of B & F Engineering, as chairman and local bank executive Scott Dews as treasurer.
The SixtyOne Celsius office is listed as the committee's address. The local advertising agency developed the successful campaign for last year's special election authorizing up to $2 million in bonds for the expansion of Mid-America Science Museum. The measure passed 1,003-520, with slightly more than 6 percent of eligible voters casting ballots.
The ad commission said debt service on the museum and baseball park bonds would account for 7 to 8 percent of its annual revenue, which is projected at $8.8 million for 2019. The 3 percent tax on prepared food and lodging inside the city generates most of the income, raising more than $6 million annually. Part of the sales tax proceeds, about $400,000 to $500,000 a year, the commission said, would be pledged toward repayment of the baseball park bonds.
Most of the $11,346,828 the commission had on hand at the end of last month is in a restricted fund for maintenance and capital improvements at the Hot Springs Convention Center and Bank OZK Arena. The commission said the capital reserve fund had an $8,419,691 balance at the end of last month.
Money pledged to the expansion of the convention center from the City County Tourists Facilities Aid Fund seeded the restricted fund, putting more than $28 million in the account through June 2011, according to a 2001 amendment to the Tourist Meeting and Entertainment Facilities Law.
Interest accrued by the restricted fund balance pays for capital projects at the convention center and arena, with the principal being available should a large capital need arise. The commission has said debt financing large projects such as the museum expansion and baseball complex rather than tapping the restricted fund gives the convention center and arena financial independence, allowing them to be maintained and improved without help from the city's general fund.
Local on 07/10/2019