What will this cost me?
Every property is different. Use the calculator below for a planning estimate of how a full transition could change your annual costs. It uses the formulas from the Mayor's earlier feasibility study, which remain the most detailed public cost estimates. The September 2026 Long Range Plan sets the sequence but leaves most dollar amounts to future budgets.
How this calculator relates to the Long Range Plan
It shows the end state, not the path. The Long Range Plan moves services in five phases from 2027 to 2030 and beyond, with the HISID assessment stepping down along the way. This calculator compares today with a completed transition, when the whole assessment is gone and all the new City charges are in place. In the years between, you would pay a reduced assessment plus only the charges that have started. See the assessment diagram.
The property tax line counts only one additional mill. The City currently levies 4 mills, and millage is set each year.3,4 The plan's projections assume 5. Because you already pay the first 4, the calculator counts only the fifth as new and shows the existing 4 separately for reference. The earlier feasibility study, and earlier versions of this page, counted all 5 as new.
The Public Safety fee is the July 2026 estimate. The Long Range Plan gives a range of $50 to $56 a month ($600 to $672 a year) for the Sheriff's contract option, which includes the $632 used here4,2. It gives no figure for a police department.
The Recreation fee is the May 2026 estimate. The Long Range Plan says the Parks and Recreation fee is not yet established and will be determined in 20294.
The sales tax is a proposed ballot measure on November 3, 2026. It would authorize a 2.5% local sales and use tax for general fund expenses and capital improvements. It is included as if it passes.
Your estimated household impact
This is a planning estimate based on the earlier feasibility-study figures and the assumptions you entered. It is not an adopted tax bill. The headline figure is the change once the transition is complete; the "When each change arrives" table below shows how it phases in.
This shows the change a full transition would make — not your full tax bill. It does not include property tax you already pay today (Carroll County, school district, or other existing local millage) or sales tax you already pay today (Arkansas's state rate or Carroll County's existing rate). Those don't change under this proposal, so they're left out. It also leaves out the City's existing 4-mill property tax, which you already pay; only the additional mill in the planning assumption is counted. Only the HISID assessment (removed) and the new city charges (added) are shown below. For your full combined tax picture, including current rates, see the Tax Comparison page.
| Item | Annual amount | Source |
|---|
When each change arrives
The Long Range Plan moves services in phases, so the change does not land in a single year. Dates after 2027 are the plan's targets, and each step depends on the vote, petition or budget noted.
| When | What changes on your bills | Amount |
|---|
Phases and the $54.25 sewer-loan reduction are from the Long Range Plan, September 22, 2026. The plan does not state the other assessment reductions; they will be set in HISID's budgets. Fee amounts are earlier feasibility-study estimates. The 2027 sales tax start date is from the City's January 2026 State of the City.
Putting the number in context
What it pays for
Sheriff or police coverage, the fire department, about 69 miles of roads, and the golf courses, marina, pools and trails. The costs are not new; the way they are paid for is.
Standing still is not free
Today's bill reflects today's structure, not the permanent cost of doing nothing. The Long Range Plan projects that HISID's current assessment capacity could be exhausted around 2037 under its assumptions, and roads, public safety and recreation need funding under any structure.
Why this matters →Shared with visitors
The sales tax is the one piece paid by everyone who spends money here, not only by property owners. Your own share depends on how much you buy locally.
In line with the neighbors
In this site's comparison, a fully transitioned Holiday Island lands within about $430 a year of Berryville, Green Forest and Eureka Springs in property and sales tax on the same illustrative household. That comparison leaves out service fees, which this calculator includes.
See the comparison →How was this calculated?
How these numbers are calculated
The calculator adds together six line items using the source study's flat fees, with one adjustment: the study counted a full 5-mill city property tax as new, and this calculator counts only the one mill above the 4 the City already levies. Your net annual change is simply the sum of these six numbers.
| Line item | How it's calculated | Source |
|---|---|---|
| HISID assessment goes away | A flat amount is subtracted: −$834.60/year for an improved (developed) property, or −$513.60/year for a vacant lot — the current HISID assessment for each category, which the transition eliminates.1 | Current charge (ending) |
| Recreation Urban Service District fee | A flat +$187.85/year, charged to every property regardless of improved/vacant status or property value.1 | Early estimate (set in 2029) |
| Public Safety Urban Service District fee | A flat fee charged only to improved properties: +$632/year if the city keeps the sheriff/deputy contract, or +$888/year if it forms its own police department — whichever option you select. Vacant lots aren't billed for this fee.1 | Proposed (study figure) |
| City property tax, one additional mill (real estate) | Your entered property value × 0.0002. Arkansas assesses real property at 20% of its value, and one mill is 0.1% of assessed value, so one mill costs 0.02% of the value you enter. The City already levies 4 mills; the planning assumption is 5, the constitutional maximum, so only the fifth mill is counted as new.2 | Planning assumption (4 to 5 mills) |
| City property tax, one additional mill (vehicles) | Your entered vehicle value × 0.0002, the same one-mill formula as real property. This only applies to improved (occupied) properties, since the source model doesn't attribute household vehicles to vacant lots.2 | Planning assumption (4 to 5 mills) |
| Estimated household impact of proposed 2.5% sales tax | By default, a flat modeled estimate of +$270/year for an improved property, from the feasibility study's household spending assumptions, and $0 for a vacant lot. If you enter your own annual taxable spending, the calculator uses that amount × 2.5% instead.1 | Modeled estimate |
Two things worth calling out: the property-value fields only ever affect the two mill-rate lines — they don't change the flat fees — and the "Public Safety" line is $0 for vacant lots, and the "sales tax" line is $0 for vacant lots unless you enter your own spending, because the source study's model applies those only to improved properties.
- The flat dollar figures — the HISID assessment removed, the Recreation and Public Safety Urban Service District fees, and the sales-tax estimate — come directly from the Mayor's feasibility study presentations: "Can the City Do It All?" (May 2, 2026, revised May 6) and "The Future Holiday Island — Session 2: Protecting Our Citizens" (July 11, 2026, revised July 13). This calculator uses the more recent July figures throughout; see the Sources page for full citations. ↩ back to table
- The 20% assessment ratio and the 5-mill municipal property tax rate aren't figures unique to the feasibility study — they're general features of Arkansas law: Ark. Code Ann. § 26-26-303(c) sets the 20%-of-market-value assessment ratio, and the Arkansas Constitution, Article 12, § 4 caps the municipal property tax a city may levy without a separate vote at 5 mills on real and personal property. The How We'd Pay page covers how the study applies this same toolkit. ↩ back to table
Market value, assessed value, and taxable value — three different numbers
Arkansas county assessors track three distinct figures for every property. Knowing which one is which matters for this calculator — and for reading your own assessment notice.
Market value
What the county estimates the property is worth. This is the number this calculator asks you to enter.
Full assessed value
Generally 20% of market value for Arkansas real property. Do not enter this figure into the calculator — it already applies the 20% ratio for you.
Taxable value
The value actually used to calculate a real property tax bill, after Amendment 79's caps and any applicable credits are factored in. This can legitimately be lower than the full assessed value.
| Assessor's field | Example amount |
|---|---|
| Estimated Market Value | $300,000 |
| Full Assessed (20% Market Value) | $60,000 |
| Taxable Value (illustrative; lower because of Amendment 79's cap on annual increases) | $52,000 |
These numbers can all legitimately be different for the same property; the taxable value shown is an invented figure to make that point. This calculator uses Estimated Market Value — see "Which number should I enter?" above the property-value field.
Published worked examples (May 2, 2026 presentation)1
These are the study's original figures, shown for reference. They count the full 5 mills as a new tax and use the May fee estimates, so their totals are higher than the live calculator above. For a $300,000 home the difference is $240 a year in property tax the City already collects.
For reference, here are the exact worked examples from the original feasibility deck, using that presentation's original fee figures ($634.80 sheriff / $860.78 police per improved property — since refined to $632 / $888 in the July 2026 update used above).
With sheriff/deputy contract
| Line item | $20K vacant lot | $150K house | $300K house |
|---|---|---|---|
| HISID assessment goes away | -$513.60 | -$834.60 | -$834.60 |
| Recreation USD fee | +$187.85 | +$187.85 | +$187.85 |
| Public Safety USD fee | $0.00 | +$634.80 | +$634.80 |
| 5-mill property tax | +$20.00 | +$150.00 | +$300.00 |
| 5-mill personal property tax | $0.00 | +$20.00 | +$40.00 |
| New 2.5% sales tax (est.) | $0.00 | +$270.00 | +$270.00 |
| Net annual change | -$305.75 | +$428.05 | +$598.05 |
With a new police department
| Line item | $20K vacant lot | $150K house | $300K house |
|---|---|---|---|
| HISID assessment goes away | -$513.60 | -$834.60 | -$834.60 |
| Recreation USD fee | +$187.85 | +$187.85 | +$187.85 |
| Public Safety USD fee | $0.00 | +$860.78 | +$860.78 |
| 5-mill property tax | +$20.00 | +$150.00 | +$300.00 |
| 5-mill personal property tax | $0.00 | +$30.00 | +$40.00 |
| New 2.5% sales tax (est.) | $0.00 | +$270.00 | +$270.00 |
| Net annual change | -$305.75 | +$664.03 | +$824.03 |
A note for residents on a fixed income
If you're retired, on Social Security, or managing a fixed monthly budget, "new tax" understandably sounds like unwelcome news no matter how the rest of this site frames it. That reaction deserves a straight answer, not a sales pitch.
What "ad valorem" means — and why it changes who pays what
Ad valorem is Latin for "according to value." It's the standard term for a tax calculated as a percentage of what something is worth, rather than a flat dollar amount charged to everyone alike. City property tax, modeled here at the 5-mill planning assumption, is an ad valorem tax: every property is taxed at the same rate — 0.1% of its estimated market value — so the dollar amount scales with what the property is actually worth. HISID's current assessment works the opposite way: it's a flat, per-property charge that doesn't look at value at all, so a modest home and a much larger one on the lake pay the identical dollar amount today.
| Charge | $150,000 home | $850,000 lakefront home |
|---|---|---|
| Today's flat HISID assessment | $834.60 | $834.60 |
| ...as a share of the home's value | 0.56% | 0.10% |
| City ad valorem property tax at 5 mills (planning assumption) | $150.00 | $850.00 |
| ...as a share of the home's value | 0.10% | 0.10% |
Today, both homes pay the exact same $834.60 HISID assessment — which means, measured against what each home is worth, the $150,000 home is paying more than five times the effective rate of the $850,000 home. Under an ad valorem property tax, both properties pay the same 0.1% rate: the lakefront home pays more in dollars, as you'd expect from a property worth over five times as much, but the two homes carry the same proportional burden. This fairness argument is about how the property-tax component is distributed, not about whether your total bill goes up or down overall — use the calculator above for your own full picture.
The flat assessment you pay today has no relief built in. Real property tax does.
HISID's current assessment is a flat charge — everyone in a given category pays the same amount, with no discount for income or age. Arkansas's constitutional property tax protections for homeowners only apply to the standard annual property tax billed on assessed value, not to a special-district assessment like HISID's. That means the city property tax, unwelcome as a "new" tax sounds, is also what makes these protections available to Holiday Island homeowners for the first time:
The Homestead Tax Credit
Arkansas provides a homestead property-tax credit for eligible primary residences — currently $675 per year, raised from $600 by Act 174 of 2026 (HB1103; Ark. Code Ann. § 26-26-1118(a)(1)(A)), effective for assessment years beginning on or after January 1, 2026. The credit reduces your total real-property tax bill, including any new city portion — it is not a separate credit created specifically for the proposed city tax, and a homeowner does not receive an additional credit just because a new taxing jurisdiction is created. This calculator does not subtract the homestead credit from the modeled 5-mill city tax. For many lower-valued homes it can still offset a meaningful share of the new city tax. Confirm your current-year amount with the Carroll County Assessor or Arkansas DFA, since state law can change.
Source: Arkansas DFA — Property Tax Relief Programs; Act 174 of 2026 (HB1103).
The 65+ / disabled assessment freeze
If you're 65 or older, or disabled, you can apply with the county assessor to freeze your home's assessed value (no income limit was found to apply to this specific freeze). This isn't automatic — you must file the application. Once approved, that assessed value stops rising due to reappraisal, even as Holiday Island grows and property values climb, as this site's Growth Plan hopes they will. This does not guarantee your entire future city tax bill stays flat — millage rates, Urban Service District fees, and other charges can still change even with a frozen assessed value.
The 5% annual growth cap
Even without the senior/disabled freeze, Arkansas Amendment 79 caps how much any homestead's assessed value can rise in a single year from reappraisal at 5% — a guardrail against a sudden spike, for every homeowner, at any age. Exceptions apply for new construction, substantial improvements, and newly discovered property.
The one part of this bill that flexes with you
Unlike a flat assessment or a fixed fee, the proposed 2.5% sales tax would only apply to what you actually spend — a lighter spending year naturally means a smaller share of this specific cost, the same way it would with any sales tax anywhere. That's real flexibility a flat fee simply can't offer. It's also worth remembering that every dollar spent here rather than elsewhere does double duty: it covers this cost today, and it strengthens the same local tax base the Growth Plan depends on for keeping everyone's share manageable over time.
You don't have to golf for these fees to work in your favor
Not everyone golfs, boats, or swims — and it's a completely fair question why every improved property pays into the Recreation Urban Service District fee regardless. The honest answer is that these amenities aren't really a golfer's benefit or a boater's benefit; they're a homeowner's benefit, whether or not you ever set foot on the course.
They support your home's value
A review of dozens of studies by the National Recreation and Park Association found homes near parks and recreational amenities are commonly worth 8% to 20% more than comparable homes without them — and separate research on golf-adjacent homes finds a similar 8%–12% premium. That value shows up whether the owner ever uses the amenity or not; buyers pay for the community they're moving into, not just the house.
They're what brings the next buyer to the table
Nearly three in four U.S. adults say access to parks or recreation is an important factor in choosing where to live, per the same research. When it's time to sell, "lake town with two golf courses, a marina, and pools" is a meaningfully stronger listing than "lake town" alone — and per the Growth Plan, more buyers moving in means a bigger tax base sharing these same costs going forward.
Letting them decline would cost everyone more
The flip side is real too: research on golf courses that close after losing their funding shows the effect can run the other way, dragging nearby property values down with them. That's the risk this whole transition is trying to get ahead of — HISID's assessment revenue for recreation isn't guaranteed to hold, and its loss wouldn't stay confined to the golfers.
Sources: National Recreation and Park Association; "The Impact of Shuttered Golf Courses on Property Values".
None of that erases the honest fact that the Recreation and Public Safety fees are flat, per-property charges with no income-based discount — that's still true, and worth saying plainly rather than glossing over. But "I don't use it" and "it doesn't benefit me" aren't quite the same thing here.
None of this changes the honest bottom line either: for most improved properties, this transition is a net cost increase, not a decrease. Use the calculator above with your own numbers to see your real one, not a hypothetical. But it's not an increase without guardrails — and if it turns out to be more than the community is willing to accept, the built-in off-ramps — the November vote and two later petitions — exist specifically so residents can say so.
Sources cited on this page
- Mayor Dan Kees, "Can the City Do It All?" — A Feasibility Study, presented May 2, 2026 (updated May 6, 2026). Earlier feasibility estimate, not an adopted figure. Posted on the City website under About/Contact → Services. Link
- Mayor Dan Kees, "The Future Holiday Island — Session 2: Protecting Our Citizens," presented July 11, 2026 (revised July 13, 2026). Earlier feasibility estimate, not an adopted figure. Presented in a public forum.
- City of Holiday Island, "State of the City: Planning for Holiday Island's Future," January 2026. Link
- City of Holiday Island & Holiday Island Suburban Improvement District, Long Range Plan, September 22, 2026 (Resolution 2026-015). Link