Go Forward Pine Bluff spent $103,000 on its two attempts to extend the sales tax that helps fund its initiatives, while the Pine Bluff chapter of the NAACP — the only organized opposition to the tax plan — spent less than $11,000 on the two campaigns, a greater than 9-to-1 spending disparity.
The information is contained on the state Ethics Commission site that lists legislative and ballot question committees, known as LQCs and BQCs, by name, the organization’s paperwork describing the purpose of the committee and their monthly reports that show contributions received and expenditures paid out.
By comparison, during the initial campaign held in 2017, Go Forward collected and spent about $143,000 in its successful effort to get the five-eighths-cent tax passed.
With the five-eighths-cent tax that funds Go Forward projects set to expire this September, Go Forward attempted in May 2023 to have voters renew the tax for another seven years as well as pass a separate and permanent three-eighths-cent sales tax for public safety purposes. When that attempt failed, Go Forward tried in November to pass the two sales taxes, but again, voters said no.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Pro-Tax Organization for the May 2023 Election
In May, Go Forward created a BQC called “2024 GFPB Sales Tax Renewal Campaign.” A BQC is defined by the Ethics Commission as an entity that “receives contributions for the purpose of expressly advocating” for or against a ballot question.
The individuals on the organizing document are listed as Mary Pringos, chair; Carolyn Blakely, vice chair; Ron Powell, treasurer; and Irene Holcomb. Pringos is listed on the Go Forward website as the vice chair of the agency’s board, and Holcomb is listed as a member of the board.
Included as committee members on the form were the aforementioned names as well as Owen Mouser, Leigh Cockrum and Tommy May.
Mouser is listed on the Go Forward website as the coordinator for ALICE, a Go Forward-supported program aimed at helping people qualify for home loans. His mother, Rosalind Mouser, a Pine Bluff attorney, is a member of the Go Forward board, and his father, Kirby Mouser, also an attorney in Pine Bluff, is on the board of the Pine Bluff Urban Renewal Agency, a public agency that acts in concert with Go Forward. Cockrum is listed as Go Forward’s office manager, and May is the chair of the Go Forward board.
The form also asks for a brief statement explaining how the committee will be used. In response, Go Forward stated: “The GFPB Sales Tax Renewal Campaign will advocate for the renewal of the temporary 5/8th cent sales tax and the passage of a 3/8th cent Public Safety Tax. The election will be held May 9th, 2023.”
Monthly Reports
The first of the required monthly reports filed by the new entity was in April 2023, covering the month of March. The report showed $51,000 in contributions with $50,000 of that coming from Fifty for the Future, a longtime nonprofit focused on supporting programs that promote economic growth in Pine Bluff.
The president of that organization, as listed on its IRS 990 form, is Jon Lawson, who is also listed as a member of the Go Forward board. The Secretary of State website lists Lawson, Mike Carter and Edward Hardin as directors of Fifty for the Future, which has been in existence since 1968. The site also lists Kirby Mouser as the registering agent.
Lawson was also a member of the city’s Advertising and Promotion Commission but resigned last summer at a time when he was being criticized by the Pine Bluff branch of the NAACP over a perceived conflict of interest for steering about $19,000 in A&P grant money to Go Forward. The A&P board later agreed that there had been a conflict in the money transfer since Lawson served on both boards and had voted to move the money to Go Forward.
Also listed in the April 2023 report, was $900 in a non-monetary contribution from MK Distributors for 40 4×4 signs, and a $1,000 contribution from Georgia Street Self-Storage.
Expenditures that month were listed as:
$4,812 to Arkansas Printing for signs.
$12,000 to Deltaplex Radio for radio ads.
In the May 2023 report, covering the month of April, the committee reported two contributions totaling $2,300 — $2,000 from May and $300 from Rosalind Mouser.
Expenditures on the May report totaled $22,510, broken out as follows:
$10,647 to Complete Campaign Services, a Jonesboro. business, for direct mail.
$8,750 to Complete Campaign Services for consulting.
$3,113 to Arkansas Printing for campaign banners.
The June 2023 report, covering the time period from April 30 to June 9, lists $57,000 in contributions, with that whole amount coming from Go Forward. Also listed was a non-monetary contribution from Pine Bluff Title Co. for $2,000 for office space. The head of Pine Bluff Title is Jimmy Dill, who is also the chair of the Urban Renewal Agency.
Spending during that time period totaled $22,453, broken out as follows:
$1,500 to Henry Dabner for consulting and canvassing.
$2,280 to Stuff in the Bluff for digital ads.
$2,000 to Samuel Glover for marketing.
$138 to Mary Pringos for office supplies.
$300 to the Pine Bluff Regional Chamber of Commerce for a booth at Business Expo.
$10,960 to Complete Campaign Services for marketing.
$198 to Arkansas Printing for campaign cards.
$1,121 to Rosalind Mouser. for cookout supplies.
$2,900 to Network Media One for radio ads. Network Media One is listed by the state Secretary of State as a business that has a forfeited charter and shows the registering agent as George Stepps and an officer of the business as Floyd Donald, a radio personality on Deltaplex Radio. A Facebook page for Network Media One also shows a photo of Donald as the person who leads the entity.
$1,056 to Foster Towing for mobile billboard advertising.
The July 2023 report, the last one entered for the committee, shows total contributions for the May election campaign of $110,300 with spending of $61,777 and a fund balance of $48,523.
Pro-Tax Organization for November 2023 Election
A separate legislative question committee, which is similar to a BQC, was established by Go Forward supporters to push for passage of the Go Forward-sponsored taxes in the November 2023 special election. The committee, organized in mid-September, was named the “Committee to Keep Going Forward.”
The statement to explain the purpose of the committee says: “The LQC will expressly advocate for the levy of a 5/8 of 1% sales and use tax and the levy of a 3/8 of 1% sales and use tax the public safety tax and the special elections of both. All ordinances were passed by the Pine Bluff Council on 8/30/2023.”
Monthly Reports
The first monthly report, covering the time period of Sept. 26 to Oct. 15, 2023, was filed on Nov. 16, 2023, and shows spending of $20,000, as follows:
$8,980 to the Friday, Eldredge and Clark law firm in Little Rock for professional services. The law firm was said to have worked on the language of the sales tax ballot items.
$7,314 to Arkansas Printing for signs and rush cards.
$1,000 to Joe Dempsey for consulting. Dempsey, a longtime advertising executive in Pine Bluff, submitted opinion pieces for the Pine Bluff Commercial’s editorial page in support of the Go Forward-sponsored sales taxes. He would later help create a PAC that had the sole purpose of discrediting Vivian Flowers in her successful runoff race for mayor against Shirley Washington. Flowers had objected to the way Go Forward operated while Washington has supported Go Forward since its inception.
$1,705 to Hayes Screen Printing for T-shirts.
$250 to the city’s Parks and Recreation Department for space rental.
$750 to #NATELOGIC, operated by Nathaniel Baker, for a podcast panel discussion.
Another report, filed on Nov. 16, covering the same period as the previous report, lists another almost $17,000 in expenditures, with the breakdown as follows:
$1,705 to Hayes Screen Printing for T-shirts.
$3,000 to Joe Dempsey Communications for consultation.
$4,850 to Deltaplex Radio for radio ads.
$765 to K&C Media for a video.
$480 to Reanna Smith for an internship.
$3,250 to Sinclair Broadcast Group for television ads.
$1,945 to Arkansas Printing for mailers and letters.
$500 to RJ’s Sports Grill for space rental.
$203 to Rosalind Mouser for food for watch party.
$300 to Allen Bass for flyer distribution.
The December 2023 report, covering the period from Nov. 16 to Dec. 15, lists expenditures of $1,750, broken out as follows:
$1,250 to Deltaplex Radio for radio ads.
$500 to Joe Dempsey Communications for consulting.
The report filed in February 2024, covering the period of Jan. 16 to Feb. 15, showed one expenditure of $250 to Network Media One for radio ads.
A report filed in April 2024, covering the month of September 2023, lists two contributions from Go Forward to the committee totaling $50,000.
In a separate April 2024 report, another contribution from Go Forward is listed, this one for $46,000, bringing the total contributions from Go Forward to the committee to $96,000, which was the total of all contributions collected for the November campaign.
The report dated May 14, 2024, is the last report shown on the site and lists one expenditure — $2,483 to the Jefferson County Clerk’s office for early voting expenses.
That report also shows total spending for the November election as $41,481, with a carryover balance of $54,518.
Spending totals for both the May and November elections by the Go Forward committees totaled $103,258.
Organized Opposition to the Tax Proposals
An opposition LQC was filed July 20, 2023, by the NAACP, which named the committee after itself. The committee was organized after the May campaign, leading to a $150 fine that was levied by the Ethics Commission. Go Forward received a letter of caution from the Ethics Commission recently for not filing the appropriate paperwork.
The officers for the NAACP LQC were listed as Ivan Whitfield as president, Gloria Tillman as treasurer and Dominique Graydon as secretary.
Other members of the committee were listed as Albert King, Michael McCray and Jihad Muhammad. King is political chair for the local NAACP, McCray is an advertising executive and one-time CPA, and Muhammad is a political activist. All of the committee members are members of the branch’s executive committee. Whitfield, president of the Pine Bluff branch of the NAACP, said no one associated with the local NAACP is paid.
In the description of the committee’s purpose, the NAACP wrote: “Regressive tax against the poor.”
Monthly Reports
In the July 20 report, covering the period from March 1 through April 12, 2023, the committee listed $3,000 in contributions: $1,000 each from John Finley, a self-employed entrepreneur; Kymara Seals, a member of the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, which is described on its website as working to “organize communities to create infrastructure, set goals and develop action plans for better schools, safer neighborhoods, accountable government, and more;” and Whitfield, who is a former police officer and chief and a former city council member who has opposed Go Forward since its inception in 2017.
Another report filed in July, this one covering the period from April 13 to May 30, 2023, shows an additional $3,300 in contributions – $300 from Pine Bluff attorney Gene McKissic, and $3,000 from the NAACP.
This report also lists $6,428 in expenditures, as follows:
$2,880 to Direct FX Solutions, a marketing business in Mississippi and elsewhere, for a mailout.
$2,538 to Super Cheap Signs, an Austin, Texas company, for yard signs.
$510 to Stuff in the Bluff for an email blast.
$500 to Jason Long, who lists an address in Chicago, for postcards.
The total amount raised for the May election by the committee was $6,428, with the total spent listed as $6,600.
The NAACP committee organized again in October under the same name and with the same people listed as the organizers in opposition to the November tax vote.
The report filed in October, covering the period from Oct. 15 to Nov. 15, lists a non-monetary contribution of $1,500 in used yard signs donated by the NAACP.
The last report available, the December 2023 report, covered the period from Nov. 9 to 30. It lists contributions of $4,550 and expenditures of $4,410.
The contributions came from Seals, Whitfield and Debra Paul, listed as retired, with each giving $250; Finley, who donated $200; Tommy Davis, who donated $400; and the NAACP, which contributed $3,200.
Expenditures were as follows:
$510 to Deltaplex Radio for radio ads.
$200 to Stuff in the Bluff for an email blast.
$3,600 to Direct FX Solutions for a mailout.
$100 to Arkansas Printing for a handout.
The total amount collected for the November election was $4,550 for a grand total of $10,850 for the two elections.
The amount spent for the November election was $4,410, for a grand total of $10,838 for the two campaigns.
The First Campaign
In 2017, according to the documents filed with the Ethics Commission, Go Forward raised more than $143,000 for its inaugural campaign at a time when there was no organized opposition to the tax proposal. The money is shown to have come from the Arkansas Community Foundation, which, according to a foundation official, did not contribute to the tax effort but acted as a pass-through account where donations were accepted from people and businesses and passed along to the pro-Go Forward committee.