Holiday Island's FutureA community conversation

About this site

Holiday Island's Future is an independent, resident-built community education project. It is not an official publication of the City of Holiday Island, HISID, or any government body.

Why this site exists

In 2026 the City of Holiday Island and the Holiday Island Suburban Improvement District (HISID) moved from studying whether the City could take over HISID's services to endorsing a Long Range Plan for doing so. It's a complex, numbers-heavy topic spread across a plan document and two long presentations — easy for residents to miss, and hard to fully absorb in a single public meeting. This site exists to make that same information easier to find, easier to read, and easier to apply to your own household, while making an honest case for why the author believes following the plan through is worth it.

The site began in mid-2026, when only the feasibility presentations existed. It was revised in October 2026 so that the Long Range Plan is its foundation.

Sources

Sources are grouped by how much weight they carry. When they conflict, the most recent official source should be given priority.

Primary source

  • City of Holiday Island & Holiday Island Suburban Improvement District, Long Range Plan, dated September 22, 2026 (Resolution 2026-015, 8 pages). Endorsed by the Holiday Island City Council and the HISID Board of Commissioners. Read the official plan, linked from the "View Long Range Plan" button on the City's homepage. Summarized on this site's Long Range Plan page.

The plan is the source for the five phases and their target years, the road transition, the administrative cost figures, the $54.25 sewer-loan reduction, the $50–$56 monthly public safety fee estimate, and what the November 3 sales tax vote decides.

Official City sources

Both presentations were delivered in public forums. The May study is posted on the City's Services page (About/Contact → Services). They remain the only public source for many detailed estimates: the budget tables, the police department cost model, the Urban Service District fee estimates, and the $502,660 sales tax revenue estimate. Wherever this site uses them, they are labeled as earlier feasibility-study estimates. They are not adopted rates.

Arkansas law and tax-administration sources

  • Source: Arkansas DFA — Assessment Coordination Division Annual Report (2024) — PDF
  • Source: Arkansas DFA — Property Tax FAQs (2023) — PDF (supports Amendment 79, the 5% growth cap, and the 65+/disabled assessment freeze)
  • Source: Arkansas Constitution, Article 12, § 4 (5-mill municipal property-tax cap) — Justia text
  • Source: Arkansas Constitution, Amendment 79 (5% homestead assessed-value growth cap; 65+/disabled freeze) — Arkansas Secretary of State — Constitution PDF
  • Source: Ark. Code Ann. § 26-26-303(c) — sets the 20%-of-market-value real property assessment ratio
  • Source: Ark. Code Ann. § 26-26-1118(a)(1)(A), as amended by Act 174 of 2026 (HB1103) (homestead property-tax credit of $675 a year, for assessment years beginning on or after January 1, 2026) — HB1103 bill page
  • Source: Arkansas DFA — Property Tax Relief Programs — dfa.arkansas.gov
  • Source: Arkansas DFA — Local Sales & Use Tax Changes — dfa.arkansas.gov

Site analysis and recommendations

Some of this site is the author's own work, not official City or HISID policy. It is labeled where it appears:

  • The Growth Plan — after its first section, which reports what the Long Range Plan says, the page is the author's independent recommendations on attracting residents, business and healthcare.
  • The Tax Comparison — independently researched sales tax and property tax rates for nearby towns and regional cities, pulled from public rate-lookup services and property-tax data aggregators.
  • The Cost Calculator — a planning tool built on the earlier feasibility-study figures, adjusted to count only the one mill above the 4 the City already levies. Its fixed-income note draws on Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration material on property tax relief.
  • The short-term rental note on the Funding page — from City ordinances and Arkansas's Advertising & Promotion Commission statute.
  • Passages marked "this site's view," such as the one on the Timeline page.

How figures were checked

Statements about the Long Range Plan were checked against the text of the plan itself, and direct quotations are shown in quotation marks. Dollar figures, statistics and formulas attributed to the feasibility study were transcribed from the two presentations. Where a table in an original document could not be reconstructed with full confidence (for example, due to how numbers were laid out on a slide or page), this site either omits that specific figure or summarizes it rather than guessing. Where sources give different numbers for the same thing, this site uses the most recent official figure and says so. Two examples: the plan counts 69 miles of road where the May study counted 71, and the plan's $50–$56 monthly public safety fee range brackets the July presentation's $632-a-year estimate.

Where the Long Range Plan does not specify something, such as an exact future assessment reduction, the Parks and Recreation fee, police staffing, or a final date for HISID's phase-out, this site says it is not yet determined.

A note on point of view

This site supports completing the transition to a consolidated city government. Its author is a Holiday Island resident, and several pages make that case directly. The facts, source documents and financial assumptions are presented so residents can evaluate that position for themselves. The aim is to keep official facts, independent analysis and recommendations visibly separate, so that a reader who disagrees with the author can still rely on the facts. The one deliberately neutral page is the Public Safety page, covering the still-undecided choice between a sheriff contract and a new city police department.

Questions or corrections

If you believe a figure on this site is inaccurate or out of date, we want to know. Please raise it at a City Council or HISID Board of Commissioners meeting, or reach out through the City's official contact channels at cityofholidayisland.com. Official plans, budgets, tax rates, assessments, petitions, votes and legal actions may change after this site was last updated in October 2026.

See the Long Range Plan summary → Back to the homepage →