See where the money goes.
Then have your say.

1 · The short version — one minute

Hot Spring County plans to spend $20,542,273.12 in 2026. That is about $622 for every person who lives here.

The biggest pieces of it: County General Fund ($7,076,204.78), County Road Fund ($4,084,985.03), Hospital Sales Tax Fund ($3,066,000). Walk the whole money trail →

Everything here is checked arithmetic. Every branch of the money tree adds up to the dollar, and you can see the receipt. Where a number isn't known yet, the page says so out loud — a dead end means "not yet ingested and navigable," never "hidden."

2 · Who actually decides — the map of power over this money

The budget is adopted by Quorum Court (11 justices of the peace), while Dennis Thornton (County Judge) runs the day-to-day. If you live here, one of these 11 people — your justice of the peace — answers to your vote:

Cities and school districts set their own budgets and tax rates through their own boards. See the full roster and how to reach them on the who-decides page, and each city's own budget on the cities & towns page.

3 · How to be heard — the calendar is the strategy

The budget is written October–December. The Quorum Court adopts the next-year appropriation in the fourth quarter; the FY2026 budget was adopted in December 2025. A concern raised while the budget is being written lands in it; the same concern raised after waits a year. If you care about a number in this tree, that window is when it moves.

Put it on the record — here. Say what to prioritize, and why, on the priorities board, or answer an open question. When enough neighbors back the same thing, it is carried to the people who decide, and what they do with it is tracked in the open.

The records are yours. The Arkansas Freedom of Information Act (Ark. Code § 25-19-101 et seq.) gives every citizen the right to public records — budgets, minutes, contracts, the check register. Most of what this site publishes came from records anyone could have requested. The docket lists exactly which records would fill the remaining gaps.

Check the math yourself. Every number links to its source. Every branch is re-added by a program, and the receipt is public. If you find an error, that is a gift — the whole point is that it can be checked.

4 · What we still cannot see — the honest gaps

The First Issues Docket tracks every gap — the records still to pull, the pools no document yet itemizes. Each entry says what is known and what only a records request or a counter visit can answer. That open-to-answered loop is the platform's running work, in public.