FORT SMITH — Local businessman Eddie York wants a new city ordinance establishing a 1 percent tax on prepared food to be put to a public vote.
York, owner of Art’s BBQ and Grill, said Thursday that he has petitions ready to begin circulating today - that he only needed the ordinance number from the city clerk’s office.
“We’re going to get after it and send a message to our city fathers,” York said.
The prepared-food tax became law Thursday after the ordinance was read for a third time during a briefspecial meeting of city directors.
Directors passed the ordinance on Feb. 15, but the 4-3 vote count was short of allowing a single reading and for the ordinance to go into effect immediately. The second reading was done during a special meeting Tuesday.
Fort Smith directors had been expected to vote to call for a special election at the Feb. 15 meeting, but Director Steve Tyler changed his vote in favor of having the directors establish the tax themselves by ordinance.
The tax is expected to generate about $1.8 million a year, which would go to payoperating expenses for Fort Smith Convention Center.
Effective date is June 1.
Mayor Sandy Sanders said Thursday that he is not concerned that a public vote would cancel out the directors’ work on the issue.
“The directors were hired by the people to make tough decisions,” he said. “No one likes taxes, but it was the right thing to do for the city.”
The effective date could be delayed by vote of city directors until the results of a referendum election are known, said Claude Legris, executive director of the city’s Advertising and Promotion Commission.
He said it would not affect the commission taking over convention center operations because the agreement between the commission and the city hinges on enactment of the tax.
The commission is taking on that role, in part, because it and not the city is authorized to spend prepared food tax money.
York said he believes the tax will be voted down. He said he has been deluged by calls from residents who oppose it and who are outraged they were not given a chance to vote on it.
“I think there is a large number of people who want this on the ballot and will vote against it,” he said.
York said the news is full of stories about too manytaxes and people wanting less taxation, and that Fort Smith already has one of the highest tax rates in the state.
The city’s sales tax rate is 9.25 percent, and it also levies a 3 percent lodging tax, the revenue from which is spent by the commission for tourism promotion.
Petitioners will need to collect 2,822 signatures of registered voters to put the question to a public vote. York said about 5,000 signatures probably will have to be collected to ensure that enough signatures can be certified.
He said he has several volunteers who will circulate the petitions to ensure they are signed by registered voters.
He also said he understood that he would have 30 days from the passage of the ordinance to collect the signatures and submit them to the city clerk’s office.
City Clerk Sherri Gard said Thursday that after the petitions are submitted to her office, she has 30 days to verify the sufficiency of the petitions. If sufficient signatures are on the petitions, the city directors must set a special election at their next regular meeting or an earlier special meeting.
She said an election could be held no less than 50 days after the ordinance is filed with the county clerk. Special elections must be held on the second Tuesday of the month, she said.
She said an election could be held as early as June 14 or as late as July 14.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 02/25/2011