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Clark County, Arkansas · commonwealth

What a community can do with its own money

Every year, some of the money we pay in taxes leaves town as interest. And some of it already sits in shared accounts. This page starts from those real numbers, then lays out how a community fund can grow, what it can own to lower what families pay, and how it stays honest — with a real example of each. Updated 2026-09-26.

The money that leaves — from the bond papers

Interest is the price of borrowing. It goes to whoever lent the money — mostly bond investors, anywhere in the country. These are the amounts in local governments’ own bond papers.

Interest to lenders	Amount
Arkadelphia School District — new high school bonds, 2027–2056 $37,170,000 borrowed; $74,544,616 paid back. Arkadelphia School District No. 1 — Official Statement, $37,170,000 Construction Bonds, Series 2026, p. 12	$37,374,616
Arkadelphia School District — 2021 and 2022 bonds, still owed at June 30, 2024 $43,307,031 of payments on $32,590,000 of principal. Arkadelphia School District No. 1 — audit, year ended June 30, 2024 (Arkansas Legislative Audit), Notes 5–6	$10,717,031
Clark County — Truck Bypass road bonds, over their life $8,460,000 at 1.125–2.00%, paid through 2036. Clark County — Financial and Compliance Report, year ended December 31, 2021 (Arkansas Legislative Audit), debt service schedule, p. 26	$1,249,445

At least $49.3 million of interest leaves these three bond deals alone — before the city’s bonds and bank loans, which aren’t added here.

What we already pool — money that already exists

Shared money isn’t a new idea here. It already exists — in bank accounts and in a sales tax the county dedicates to one purpose.

Where it sits	Amount
Clark County — money on deposit, Dec 31, 2023 Clark County — Financial and Compliance Report, year ended December 31, 2023 (Arkansas Legislative Audit), Note 2	$22,237,048
Arkadelphia School District — money on deposit, June 30, 2024 Arkadelphia School District No. 1 — audit, year ended June 30, 2024 (Arkansas Legislative Audit), Deposits note	$14,442,525
City of Arkadelphia — money on deposit, Dec 31, 2024 City of Arkadelphia — Regulatory Basis Financial Statements, December 31, 2024 (Arkansas Legislative Audit), Note 2	$3,481,123
The EDCCC half-cent sales tax, 2008–2023 (audited) A pooled fund for economic development. What it paid for isn’t public yet (Docket #5). Clark County — Financial and Compliance Report, year ended December 31, 2023 (Arkansas Legislative Audit), Schedule 2, p. 31 (2023); each earlier year in its own county audit, listed on the Taxes & debt page	$25,431,732

Deposits are from different dates and include money set aside by law, money owed to others, and cash for everyday bills — not all of it is spare. The point is scale: these governments already hold tens of millions of dollars in common.

How a shared fund grows — without the stock market

Arkansas law keeps county and city money out of the stock market (only safe securities of five years or less). That’s fine — the biggest returns for a community fund come from somewhere else.

Way 1

Stop paying interest

The surest return is money that no longer leaves. Saving first, or borrowing for fewer years, keeps it here.

Alaska Permanent Fund. By law, Alaska may draw only 5% a year of the fund’s average value; the rest keeps growing. That draw now supplies over half of the state’s unrestricted general-fund revenue, plus a yearly dividend to residents ($1,000 in 2025). APFC · Alaska Dept. of Revenue

Here: The new high school costs $74.5 million over 30 years. At the same interest rate, paid with the district’s full debt tax, it would take about 7 years and cost about $44 million. Saved for first, about 6 years and $38 million.

The honest limit: Saving first means waiting for the building, and the full debt tax isn’t free until the older bonds are paid.

Way 2

Lend to ourselves

A community fund can lend to its own projects and charge itself interest. The interest comes back into the fund instead of leaving.

State revolving funds for water. Water and sewer loans are repaid with interest into the same fund, which lends it out again. Federal seed money of about $21 billion has turned into more than $41 billion of help this way (through 2019). EPA
Bank of North Dakota. Opened July 28, 1919 — the only state-owned bank in the nation. State money is deposited with it and lent back into the state. Bank of North Dakota

Here: Arkansas already runs revolving loan funds that reach local water and sewer systems. A local fund could work the same way — the details of what Arkansas law lets counties, cities, and school districts lend each other are still being checked.

The honest limit: A revolving fund only works if loans get repaid; a fund that forgives its own loans shrinks.

Way 3

Own what lowers our bills

A fund that owns something useful “pays” its members as lower costs — power, internet, housing, food — instead of a dividend check.

Rural electric co-ops. Private power companies wouldn’t wire farms — too few customers per mile. Neighbors formed nonprofit co-ops, and the 1936 Rural Electrification Act lent them the money to build. NRECA — co-op history
Margins go back to members. A co-op returns what it doesn’t need as “capital credits.” Since 1990, electric co-ops have returned nearly $13 billion to their members. NRECA analysis
Arkansas’s co-ops. Arkansas’s electric co-ops cover more than 60% of the state’s land and serve more than 1 million members, through 17 member-owned local co-ops. Arkansas Electric Cooperatives · AECI
One here already. South Central Arkansas Electric Cooperative is headquartered in Arkadelphia. It was organized July 31, 1940, and serves parts of eight counties west and southwest of town. South Central Arkansas Electric Cooperative
Conway Corporation. The City of Conway’s own not-for-profit utility company, incorporated in 1929 — electric, water, and cable and internet — with no profit motive, in its CEO’s words. Conway Corp · Arkansas Money & Politics
Paragould Light, Water & Cable. Paragould’s city-owned utility: electric since 1938, water and wastewater added in 1984, cable in 1989. City of Paragould
Chattanooga’s EPB. The city’s own electric utility launched the first community-wide gigabit fiber network in the U.S. in 2010. A University of Tennessee at Chattanooga study put the community benefit of the fiber network and its smart power grid at more than $5 billion since launch. UTC, Nov 2025
Champlain Housing Trust. Founded in 1984 with the City of Burlington, Vermont’s support, to keep homes permanently affordable — the land stays in the trust, so each home stays affordable for the next family. Champlain Housing Trust

Here: Arkadelphia already owns its water and sewer system, paid for by rates, not taxes. Food is a household’s other big monthly bill — see the open-source grow units on the Grow-ops page.

The honest limit: Owning things means running them well: a utility or land trust needs good management, reserves for repairs, and customers who stay.

How a shared fund stays honest

Elinor Ostrom won the 2009 Nobel Prize in economics “for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons.” She studied shared resources that people ran well for generations, and found eight things they had in common:

Clear boundaries — who the fund belongs to, and what it’s for.
Rules that fit this place — written for local needs, not copied.
The people affected help make the rules.
Someone accountable checks — in the open.
Penalties start small and grow for repeat misuse.
Cheap, local ways to settle disputes.
Outside authorities respect the community’s right to run it.
For big shared resources, layers — local groups inside larger ones.

Nobel Prize · the eight principles

For a public fund, that means:

A written purpose, set before the money arrives.
A spending rule — like Alaska’s 5% a year — so the fund outlives any one board or election. APFC
Every deposit, loan, and payout on a public ledger anyone can check. This platform already keeps a hash-chained public record.
Residents decide the specific uses — a real, bounded pot, not a vote on the whole budget.

The warning: In 1994, Orange County, California’s treasurer borrowed against the county’s $7.6 billion investment pool to chase higher returns. It lost about $1.7 billion and the county filed for bankruptcy. A shared fund is safest when it is boring. SEC order

What the law allows today

Arkansas counties and cities may invest spare money only in safe securities of five years or less, bank deposits, and similar — not stocks. Ark. Code §19-1-504
A new or higher local sales tax — including one dedicated to a fund — needs a vote of the people. Ark. Code §26-74-207
Arkansas’s Interlocal Cooperation Act lets local governments work together on shared services. Exactly how far it lets them lend to each other is an open question we’re checking. Ark. Code title 25, ch. 20

Where residents come in

Put a use for shared money on the priorities board, and say why.
Watch what happens to it on What came of it — dated, cited, public.
Try the trade-offs yourself in the tax lab and on What if we saved?
Bring it to the body that decides — the calendar has the meetings.

What this doesn’t claim — the honest limits

Shared funds can be mismanaged, raided, or spent on the wrong things. The safeguards above exist because that happens.
A dollar saved is a dollar not spent on something people need now. Every choice here is a trade.
Examples from other places show what’s possible, not what will work here. Each took years, local leaders, and often state or federal help.
None of this is a recommendation. It is a map of options, with the record of each.

Related: What if we saved instead of borrowing? · Tax lab · Taxes & debt · The two pots (food) · Food sovereignty · Grow-ops. This page lays out options and their records; it doesn’t tell anyone what to choose. Spot an error? Report it.