By Ray King
The Pine Buff City Council during a special called meeting Thursday night voted 8-0 to adopt the 2023 budget. The meeting was the last for Council members Joni Alexander, who chose not to seek a second term and for Ivan Whitfield, who was defeated in a run-off by Lanette Frazier.
The total budget for 2023 was set at just over $54.3 million, with $36.8 million for the general fund, $4.1 million for the street department, another $1.5 million for community development, $2.19 million for transit, and $5.1 million set aside from the 2017 5/8 cent sales tax, commonly called the Go Forward Sales Tax.
In November, the council voted 8-0 to allocate $2 million from that sales tax fund to the Delta Rhythm and Bayou’s project but that funding was not listed in the 2023 budget book. Whitfield sought to correct that by moving that a line item be created within the Urban Renewal Agency, then amended that and removed the reference to urban renewal and replaced it with Economic and Community Development.
The 2023 budget provides that $1.9 million is appropriated to the Urban Renewal Agency with $911,000 of that dedicated to blight removal and another $1.052 million for downtown district projects. Whitfield’s initial motion would have removed that funding completely.
That motion failed on a 4-4 vote with Whitfield, Alexander, Steven Mays and Glen Brown Sr., voting yes and Glen Brown Jr., Lloyd Holcomb Jr., Bruce Lockett and Steven Shaner voting no.
After the meeting, Whitfield talked about the motion.
Whitfield, who for the four years he has been in office has complained about Go Forward Pine Bluff and made numerous attempts to redirect the tax money, without success.
Locket said he believed that part of the problem was that there was distrust among some members of the council about projects, and that carried over to their voting.
Before the meeting, self-descried community activist and former council member Jack Foster said that he believed the city and the council were acting illegally by appropriating the tax money to a private entity like Go Forward Pine Bluff and threatened legal action in circuit court.
