Fort Smith voters renew 1% sales tax

Fort Smith voters Tuesday renewed by a wide margin a 1 percent sales tax for city streets and drainage but rejected a proposal to divert a portion of the tax revenue for citywide trails and greenways.

Across the Arkansas River in Crawford County, a ballot question to renew a 1 percent countywide sales tax passed Tuesday night.

Complete but unofficial results on renewal of Fort Smith's 1 percent sales tax were:

For 5,005

Against 1,239

Complete but unofficial results to divert 5 percent of the sales tax revenue for development of trails and greenways were:

For 2,763

Against 3,472

In Crawford County, complete but unofficial results were:

For 2,113

Against 618

The Fort Smith tax, which has generated $418 million over the past 29 years, has paid for improvements and upkeep of hundreds of miles of local streets, the construction of eight traffic arteries and the completion of the Mill Creek flood control project.

The Fort Smith Parks Department's Trails and Greenways Advisory Committee proposed to city directors in January to circle Fort Smith with a continuous route of free-standing trails and with trails and bikeways on city streets.

The cost of developing the 34 miles of trails is estimated between $12 million and $15 million. The money from the 5 percent share of the street sales tax would have provided $10 million over the 10-year life of the tax. The city would have made up the difference from other sources.

Opposition to the diversion centered on the argument that Fort Smith's streets need every dollar the city can generate to keep up with repair and maintenance.

Officials in Crawford County advocated renewal of the countywide sales tax for another eight years because, with the money being allocated by population, the county and all the cities in Crawford County would get a share.

The tax generated about $6.4 million last year.

Metro on 05/13/2015

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