City Sales Tax Vote Nears

FAYETTEVILLE — Mayor Lioneld Jordan said he’ll have his mind set on one date during the next nine days: Oct. 11.

That’s the day voters will decide whether to extend the city’s 1-cent sales and use tax for another 10 years.

The penny sales tax has overwhelmingly been approved twice before in 1993 and 2002 but Jordan said he’s not taking anything for granted this time around.

“I have spoken to every group that will let me come in and talk about it,” Jordan said. “Anyone who will listen to me, I’m telling them to get out and vote.”

“If the people ever voted in an election for the future of this city, this is the election they need to vote in,” he said.

A campaign launched last week, called Vote FOR Fayetteville, also is advocating the tax’s continuation.

Justin Tennant, Ward 3 alderman, is leading the campaign committee, comprised of seven local business, nonprofit-group and university representatives.

Tennant emphasized the tax is not a new tax or a tax increase during a news conference Wednesday at Fire Station No. 1.

“If you love living in Fayetteville, many of the reasons you love living here are at risk if this renewal of the tax is not passed,” Tennant said. “It’s really about our quality of life and our way of life, and some of those are very much threatened.”

Tennant was flanked Wednesday by about 30 people wearing Fayetteville Senior Activity and Wellness Center T-shirts.

Should voters fail to extend the sales tax, city officials said contracts with outside agencies, including the senior center, Fayetteville Boys & Girls Club, Fayetteville Public Library and Ozark Regional Transit, could be severed.

According to Sherri Napier, senior center director, the center received about $50,000 from the city last year for its program and a range of trips and recreational activities.

Sixty percent, or $9.2 million, of sales tax collection went to the city’s $33.9 million general operating fund this year, said Paul Becker, finance director. The other 40 percent, about $6.2 million, paid for various capital improvements, such as road, sidewalk and trail construction, building maintenance and equipment purchases.

Because employee salaries and benefits make up 82 percent of the general fund, Becker said job cuts would top the list of the administration’s reaction if the tax is lost.

He estimated the city would shed 148 positions from its 709-employee work force if cuts were spread evenly across the general fund. He said 93 of those would come from the Police and Fire departments, if political leaders applied the cuts evenly.

Tennant said fewer firefighters could mean closing fire stations and longer emergency response times.

Greg Goggans, an insurance agent and member of the Vote FOR Fayetteville committee, said that could adversely affect the city’s Insurance Service Organization rating, on which residents’ homeowners insurance premiums are based.

If history is any indication, Jordan’s sales tax pitch to voters will not be a tough sell.

According to County Clerk Karen Combs Pritchard, Fayetteville voters first approved the penny sales tax in April 1993 by a 3,675-619 margin. The tax was extended in 2002 by a 2,531-789 vote. It is set to expire in June 2013, and a vote for rededicating the tax would add 10 years to its life.

Opposition to extending the sales tax has not been as organized as the campaign in favor of it, but there are detractors.

Warren Phillips, treasurer for a group called Northwest Arkansas Citizens for Better Government, which advocates limited government and taxes, said Thursday his message to voters is government needs to mirror the tough economic choices residents are dealing with.

“People can use all the help they can get, and government could help by not expecting to have the taxpayers just constantly toe the line and give more and more and more money,” Phillips said.

He called the city’s primary focus on public safety jobs a “scare tactic.” City officials are “perfectly capable of reevaluating their expenditures and using their resources more wisely,” he said.

Phillips offered few specifics, but he said he imagined the city could eliminate unnecessary support staff and reduce its Parks and Recreation budget.

Becker’s preliminary plan for cuts to the general fund already include shedding support staff for the city prosecutor, district court, city clerk, parks and recreation, city planning and accounting and audit divisions.

Becker acknowledged across-the-board cuts are not a concrete plan, though. Ultimately, deciding where cuts would have to be made would be up to the mayor and department heads, and the final budget would have to be approved by the City Council.

Becker said regardless of what cuts would be made, jobs would undoubtedly be on the chopping block. The $9.2 million in sales tax revenue that went into the city’s general fund this year was more than all portions of that fund combined.

If the sales tax is not extended, Becker said officials would likely look at other ways to generate revenue outside of sales tax proceeds, such as raising the property tax rate or increasing fees for construction permits or park land dedication from developers.

Becker added, “We haven’t really looked at that in depth.”

Even if the city increased its property tax rate to 5 mills, the maximum amount allowed by state law, that would only generate $5.9 million in revenue, less than half of the amount lost by ending the sales tax.

Early voting begins Tuesday and is available between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on weekdays leading up to Oct. 11. Registered voters can cast their ballots early in the County Clerk’s Office at the Washington County Courthouse, 280 N. College Ave.

Residents can check their voter registration status or find their Oct. 11 polling place at www.voterview.org or by calling the clerk’s office at 479-444-1711 prior to Election Day.