Commentary: Benton County Creates Confusing Ballot

Benton County officials were bound and determined to make this upcoming election harder than it had to be.

The Quorum Court last week voted to send two issues to the Nov. 4 ballot for funding rural ambulance service, inviting confusion and continuing controversy.

Understand that the county must find a way to fund the service, which is provided through seven municipalities. Those cities expect Benton County to help cover the cost of having ambulances at the ready for runs into the rural countryside and to smaller towns that don't have their own providers.

Apparently, neither of these ballot proposals will entirely fund the county's cost. So officials will need to find the balance in existing budgets.

Chances are, they may have to find all of the money through budget cuts -- unless they do one whale of a sales job on the electorate.

There are all sorts of problems with this two-fisted approach.

First, remember that everyone in the county won't get both questions. Now consider the different voting blocs and which issue or issues they'll see on the Nov. 4 ballot.

The voters who will get both questions live within a designated service area that is being asked (1) to pay an annual household fee of $40 and (2) to increase their property taxes by .02 mills. Money derived from each, if either or both is approved, would be dedicated to funding ambulance service.

Assume the voters are willing to pay one but not the other. Which will they choose? Most likely, the one that is least expensive to them, which is the millage hike, estimated to cost about $4 a year on property valued at $100,000.

These are the only voters who could vote for the $40 fee and preserve ambulance service for their rural area. But why wouldn't they instead want to have every property taxpayer in the county help fund the service?

For the record, the service area is loosely defined as everywhere in Benton County outside of the seven cities that provide their own ambulance services but not including an already existing rural improvement district where residents already pay a yearly household fee for ambulance service.

Confused yet?

Presumably, the people in rural areas of Northeast Benton County who already pay a fee know it. So they aren't likely to look so kindly on the proposed millage hike. They stepped up to fund their own needs. Why shouldn't other rural residents do the same?

What about the people who live in the cities that have their own emergency medical service providers? They've paid year in and year out to fund those services and ignored how many of their tax dollars have been used to have ambulances make rural runs beyond city jurisdictions.

Now that their cities have asked the county to pay part of that cost, the county is asking city taxpayers to pay higher property taxes so the county can pay the cities? Maybe it isn't a lot of money, but why would city voters ever vote to do that?

These city voters are the largest of the voting blocs and they'll likely decide whether or not the county imposes this new millage.

Some will certainly think the rural property owners should instead pay the household fee.

The end result may be that neither of the measures will pass, although there is an argument to be made that both should.

Benton County is planning a push to educate voters as to why they ought to go against their natural inclinations to vote for these measures.

The one thing every voter, no matter which approach they might favor, should remember is they cannot count on passage of the other proposal.

If people in the new service district want to be sure they'll have service, they need to approve the household fee. They can vote for the millage, too, just in case other Benton County voters buy in.

There is certainly good reason all county residents should be willing to pay that relatively small additional property tax.

This vote is about having ambulances available, staffed and ready to run wherever the need arises.

The carload of teen-agers who crash while joyriding on a country road could be city kids. The car hit by a semi on a rural stretch of highway might as easily be filled with a Rogers or Bentonville family as one from rural Decatur. Everyone who ventures into those areas of Benton County could at any time need to call for emergency services.

How much is it worth to know a fully-equipped, well-staffed ambulance will answer that call?

Surely, it is worth the relatively few dollars a year the millage hike -- or the household fee -- would cost.

That's what voters ought to be thinking about when they mark their ballots, although they'll have to wade through a lot of confusion to get there.

BRENDA BLAGG IS A FREELANCE COLUMNIST AND LONGTIME JOURNALIST IN NORTHWEST ARKANSAS.

Commentary on 08/17/2014

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