4 cities seek sales-tax rise to fix streets

Three Craighead County towns and the city of Wynne in nearby Cross County are each asking for 1-percent salestax increases Tuesday to help fund street and sewer repairs, among other projects.

Bay, Bono, Brookland and Wynne seek the increase during special elections in northeast Arkansas.

City officials all said that because of economic hardships the tax issues are critical for their towns’ futures.

“If our tax passes, we’ll be good,” said Bono Mayor Billy Stephens of his city’s tax proposal. “If not, we’ll have to slow down with our spending on everything.”

While the troubled economic conditions have hindered the cities from spending money to fix infrastructure, officials note that it’s also hurting residents’ pocketbooks - and that could sway voters Tuesday.

“I think the economy scares a lot of people,” Bay Mayor Darrell Kirby said. “But I think if people look at the bigger picture, they’ll vote for the taxes.”

City officials in Bay, a town of 1,800 about 10 miles east ofJonesboro, are asking for the 1-percent tax increase to help fund street and sewer repairs. Kirby said the rising costs of asphalt has hampered the street department from making road repairs and “two or three streets are really falling apart.”

He said work is also needed on the city’s sewer system, which was built more than 50 years ago.

“We need this,” he said of the tax. “If we don’t pass the tax, we’ll have to raise our water rates to get the money. I tell people in Bay that they can pay for it all or let others coming through help pay it.”

Kirby said he also hopes to run sewer and water lines to land the city annexed along U.S. 63 in the southeastern corner of the town to lure new businesses to the area.Since U.S. 63 opened some 20 years ago, traffic between Memphis and Jonesboro no longer goes through Bay and tax revenue from motorists stopping to buy fuel and food has dwindled.

“It’s sitting there, ready,” Kirby said of the annexed land. “We just need to get the lines to it and get started.”

In Bono, a city of 1,512, the tax would also fund road andsewer repairs, Stephens said.

“We need to make a lot of improvements to our streets,” he said. “Our little town is growing all the time.”

He said he also wants to install sidewalks and have funds available for repairing any problems that could arise with the city’s water system.

Brookland is also feeling growing pains, said Mayor Kenneth Jones. The city of 1,332 has expanded to meet the U.S. 49 bypass that wraps around the western edge of town, and Jones wants to attract more people into the town. He plans to build a museum highlighting the town’s past in an old downtown building, and there’s talk of a grocery-store chain coming to Brookland some day.

“We’ve got a lot of construction going on,” he said. “We’re growing. But concrete trucks are busting up our roads.

“We’ve got to pay for the streets, or we won’t have any,” he said. “If we don’t take care of the town, why will people come here?”

Brookland voters turned down a 2-cent citywide sales tax in 2009 that would have raised about $126,000 yearly for repairs to streets, roads, parks and drainage. Residents also voted against a proposalto annex 4,600 acres south of town along U.S. 49 then - an issue that Jones thinks may have caused the tax to be defeated.

“It was my fault,” he said of the defeat of the 2009 tax increase proposal. “I threw the long bomb and it failed.

“We’ve looked at all alternatives to raise money,” he said. “We need to fix things here and the tax is our only way.”

Wynne voters will decide on a citywide 1-percent sales tax that would be collected for five years. If passed, the $1.4 million generated would go toward economic development, parks and recreation improvements, and street repairs.

“If the tax doesn’t pass, there’s no economic development from the professional standpoint,” Mayor Paul Nichols said. “This is very critical.”

Wynne voters favored a 1-percent countywide sales tax for CrossRidge Community Hospital in 2000 and an earlier sales-tax proposal earmarked for economic development in Cross County.

“It looks good,” he said of the chances of voters passing the sales-tax issue Tuesday. “I think people know we need to pay to upgrade.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 19 on 05/08/2011

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