LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. made his final push for a new sales tax on Wednesday.
After a month of meetings across the city, Wednesday night's meeting was the last one before the board votes on the mayor's proposal.
It was a packed house with two state representatives in attendance. It was held in midtown.
If passed, the one-cent sales tax would bring $60 million of capital improvements, including public safety, public infrastructure, parks and rec and port.
The mayor broke down the city's budget into "three purses."
The first is what he calls the general fund, where your taxes go towards daily operations. The second is the recently passed millage that goes to one-time projects. The third would be this proposed tax, which the mayor said is necessary for other essential projects.
"We need this additional money to continue to do more projects," Scott said. "We have done as much as possible with what we have."
This final meeting was held in Vice Mayor Kathy Webb's ward. She said she's not supporting the tax proposal right now.
"While you never have something perfect, I think it's premature," Webb said. "I think it's flawed, and what I heard from tonight and what I heard from my constituents for the last six months is we got to fix 911."
Now, the mayor is making final adjustments to the proposal before he brings a resolution to the board.
"One of the things we'll do is more changes for public infrastructure," Scott said.
The directors and mayor will meet one final time on Friday morning to decide whether or not they will vote on the tax.
If they do not decide, the tax proposal will not be on the November ballot.