SPRINGDALE — Public transit leaders are looking to the November election after Washington County voters rejected a local funding proposal.
There’s still a chance public transit for Northwest Arkansas could see additional money if a proposed state half-cent sales tax dedicated to transportation passes in November. The tax would bring an estimated $8.6 million annually to cities and counties in the region to spend as they see fit on transportation needs.
An argument could be made one of those needs is additional support for Ozark Regional Transit, said Jerre Van Hoose, chairman of the ORT board.
“It’s possible that the cities or counties could take some of that money and put it toward transit,” Van Hoose said. “That might allow us to expand services a bit, though not as much as our dedicated tax would have.”
A lawsuit filed last week to stop the transit-tax vote won’t be refiled, said Coleman Taylor, the attorney who filed the suit.
“If it had passed, we were prepared to do something, but the voters quashed it, so it’s a moot point,” Taylor said.
Ozark Regional Transit’s proposal for a quarter-cent sales tax would have raised an estimated $7.5 million in Washington County, well above the current $2.8 million budget for service in Washington and Benton counties. Voters in Washington County on Tuesday rejected the tax by a two-to-one margin. The issue never made the ballot in Benton County, as county officials refused to put the request before voters.
The Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission, along with the Northwest Arkansas Regional Mobility Authority, had sparred with Ozark Regional Transit backers over the competing proposals, arguing asking voters for two transportation-related taxes in one year diluted the possibility of either one passing.
Other projects competing for the highway tax money would include bypasses in Springdale and Bella Vista and improvements to Interstate 540, said Jeff Hawkins, director of the commission.
A comprehensive regional transit system will require a dedicated tax at some point, Van Hoose said.
“We’ll never have a fully regional system until we find a dependable source of revenue,” he said.
The state highway tax will be on ballots in the November general election.