Short on time and money, a coalition of local activists is mounting an eleventh-hour effort to defeat the sales tax proposal on the ballot of the countywide Feb. 8 special election.
Voters will decide if the 0.625% countywide sales tax currently securing $54.6 million in road bonds and set to expire at the end of June will be extended through June 2027 to provide revenue to repair and replace roads and bridges maintained by the city of Hot Springs and Garland County.
Those at Thursday night's gathering of the Garland Good Government Group at the Garland County Library said the For Our Roads Now Committee that's promoting the sales tax extension has left the community little time to digest what's being proposed. The Garland County Quorum Court set the Feb. 8 election date at its November meeting, the Monday before Thanksgiving.
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The GGGG and Garland County TEA Party have less than three weeks left to counter-message the committee's advocacy campaign before early voting starts on Feb. 1.
They lack the funds of the committee, which reported an $18,272 cash balance in the December financial report it filed with the Arkansas Ethics Commission earlier this month. The money came from The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee's $25,000 contribution last month.
The activist said they weren't surprised by the contribution, given that the city and county have annual contracts for economic development services with the chamber-affiliated Hot Springs Metro Partnership that pay the nonprofit corporation $187,500 a year.
The Garland County Tax Alliance, the local ballot question committee the counter-advocacy campaign is being run through, reported a $209.92 cash balance in its November financial report. The leaders of the group who met Thursday solicited donations from attendees.
"We have an opportunity to stop this tax," Reggie Cowan of the local TEA Party chapter told the group. "It's going to require us all to talk to our neighbors, our friends, our family, people at church and community groups. Tell them there's going to be a special election on Feb. 8. We can vote against that and stop this tax."
City and county-maintained roads and bridges in need of repair are listed on the For Our Roads Now Committee website and promotional materials the committee has distributed, but Cowan said the sales tax proposal lacks specificity.
"I want to see a list of the project work to be done," he told the group. "They have a list of roads in alphabetical order, but let's have a list of what priority they are."
Several of the activists have said they would be more amenable to the proposal if it were brought to voters in a primary or general election. Citing data from the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics, they said more than three-fourths of local sales tax elections in the state have passed when held during a special election. The percentage drops to 57% in a primary election and 44% in a general election.
Fewer than 12% of the county's more than 60,000 registered voters cast a ballot in the June 2016 special election that reauthorized the sales tax to secure $54.6 million in road bonds. The measure passed 4,601-2,637.
"Is it democratic for 10% of the people to vote to tax 100% of the people?" GGGG leader Bob Driggers asked the group.
The group has said the February date was set to engineer low turnout. It also comes at a time when voters are feeling the pinch of price increases not seen since the early 1980s, the group said.
"Inflation is at its highest level in 40 years," Cowan told the group. "In many people's opinion, this is not the time. It's time to give the people a break. Our state motto is Regnant Populous. That means the people rule. They're not talking to us. I encourage you to talk to everybody you can and let them know about Feb. 8."
The Little Rock chapter of Americans for Prosperity is also participating in the counter-advocacy campaign. It helped to defeat the Rebuild the Rock sales tax proposal Little Rock voters rejected in September.