Empower Arkansas
Empower Arkansas is an organization dedicated to tax activism in Arkansas. The president of the group is Nora Harris.
Empower Arkansas opposed the sale of $16.5 million in local park revenue bonds to pay for the purchase and clearing of a 27.7 acre site destined for the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park in downtown Little Rock. The bond sale was approved by the Little Rock Board of Directors in March 1998. Said Nora Harris of the decision to sell park bonds, ""They knew they weren't doing it the right way. With a bond issue like this, we told them they needed to put it to a vote of the public. And they wouldn't do that." Empower Arkansas failed to collect 8,500 signatures by a petition deadline of April 19, 1998, which would force a public election on the bond sale.
Said Little Rock Mayor Jim Dailey at the time, "We do bond issues all the time; this isn't a tax increase. This is an economic development opportunity, and I'm disappointed that anyone would challenge it, but that's their right." The subsequent case of Nora Harris v. City of Little Rock was dismissed in 2002.
References
- "Clinton Library Land Deal Questioned," Washington Post, August 6, 2000.
- "Clinton Library Petition Fails," American Libraries 29.6 (June-July 1998): 34-35.
