City considers sales tax to maintain streets

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Voters in the city of Conway, Arkansas will decide this November if the sales tax should increase by 0.375 percentage-points to fund street maintenance. The sales tax would raise $5.1M annually and sunset in 2023, unless extended by another vote of the public.

The City Council decided earlier this week to put the issue to the voters. The sales tax, if approved, could be used for maintenance of the city's collector and arterial streets, sidewalks, traffic signals and controls, multiuse pathways, and curbs and drainage systems.

Currently the City receives $1.4M annually from the state for road maintenance and has an estimated backlog of maintenance work worth $45M. According to the mayor, repairing roads now would extend the streets' lifespan by up to 12 years.

Learn more about the proposed sales tax from ArkansasOnline.