The Little Rock Board of Directors will vote on the city’s 2025 property tax rate and the creation of a Breckenridge Village entertainment district next week.
If approved, the city would levy a total property tax rate of 15.1 mills, the same as the current rate, according to a resolution passed last October.
This total does not include any mills that go to the Little Rock School District or Pulaski County. Currently, the total millage in Little Rock is 70 mills.
The full agenda for next week’s meeting, which the board approved at its agenda-setting meeting today, can be viewed here.
The Breckenridge Village entertainment district would encompass the entire Breckenridge Village property, and would allow people to drink alcohol there seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., until the end of the year.
Breckenridge Village has been in the midst of major renovations since the shopping center was hit by the March 31, 2023 EF-3 tornado that tore through parts of Little Rock, North Little Rock, Jacksonville and Sherwood.
In 2019 the city board approved an ordinance authorizing the creation of entertainment districts, public zones where people can move freely with alcoholic beverages they’ve purchased from bars or restaurants in the zone, in Little Rock. The River Market has been an entertainment district since 2019.
At-Large City Director Joan Adcock moved to have the resolution voted on separately from the rest of the agenda items at next week’s meeting.
“We might have some people coming to speak on that [resolution] next week,” Adcock said.
Near the end of today’s meeting, the board discussed when to hold meetings to discuss the city’s 2025 budget. Those meetings likely won’t be held until after the election on Nov. 5.
“Based on competing schedules and our best effort to have 100% participation, we have not been able to schedule the city board budget workshop in the month[s] of September and October,” Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said.
Scott said he would propose two dates to city directors and hold a budget meeting on whichever day the most city directors say they can participate.
Ward 5 Director Lance Hines and Ward 2 Director Ken Richardson were both absent from today’s agenda-setting meeting.
On Aug. 1, the city of Little Rock announced that Richardson, who hasn’t been to a board meeting since May 14, is in the hospital recovering from “life-threatening” surgeries.
Richardson is on track to fully recover, according to the August press release, but it’s not clear when he will return to his public duties.
For more information on the city board and how it works, check out our cheat sheet.
