We city residents in Washington County appear to be at war with ourselves.
At least, our representatives are feuding with each other from their respective seats on city and county governing boards.
The issue is road taxes and where the money we city taxpayers have traditionally put toward that purpose will go in the future.
County government levies a 1.1-mill property tax for roads. The money it generates is split among the county and the cities, depending on whether the taxed property is in a city or in an unincorporated area.
The amounts each city receives differ -- with Fayetteville and Springdale getting greater percentages than smaller cities do. That division is thanks to state legislation that has long dictated what the respective city and county shares will be.
County officials through the years have complained not so much about sharing the money with cities but about how much Fayetteville and Springdale were getting. They each claim 80 percent of the road tax revenue generated from property owners within their cities, while smaller cities typically get 50 percent. County government gets the remaining share for its road needs.
What is happening now goes a step beyond that old fuss.
A Washington County Quorum Court member who represents an area west of Farmington is spearheading what is being called a "millage swap" intended not to raise anyone's taxes but to redirect all of the road tax money from cities to the county.
The Quorum Court is the county's governing board and is in the middle of budgeting for 2017. Budget-writing has understandably gotten more difficult for the county government. There are the ever-increasing demands for service at the same time that more and more of the county's residents now live in cities. That's important to keep in mind, because the county splits local sales tax revenue with the cities on a per capita basis. As city populations become a bigger portion of the overall county population, the county's share of sales tax drops.
Consequently, Justice of the Peace Rick Cochran, the aforementioned Quorum Court member, came up with a way to recoup some money from the cities.
He suggests the county stop levying the traditional 1.1-mill road tax and instead hike the county's general millage rate by the same 1.1-mill rate. All of the general millage goes to the county.
There is a lot of money involved here. The road millage generates roughly $3.5 million a year now, with $2.2 million of that sum going to the cities.
What Cochran proposes would yank a $2.2-million rug out from under 13 cities in Washington County. The losses would range from as little as $1,821 for tiny Winslow to a whopping $1,175,677 for Fayetteville. Springdale would lose $783,303.
The county road department, which gets $1,338,003 million from the road tax, would lose those dollars. But the hike in the general tax would restore that amount and $2.2 million more to the county budget in a general tax increase. It would be up to the Quorum Court to decide how much of the money would go to roads or to other purposes.
Road tax money, whether it went to the county or to the cities, has had to be used for county roads and city streets or for bridges or other related infrastructure.
Cochran's proposition completely upsets that applecart, although it could arguably help cover an expected shortfall in the county's overall budget. The county has drafted a $65 million budget but anticipates only $61 million in revenue.
Cochran blindsided the cities with his proposal at last month's Quorum Court meeting. There was no notice, no nothing to the cities that the Quorum Court might consider such a big policy shift.
A couple of the Quorum Court members, themselves caught by surprise, reportedly texted Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan to warn him about the possible change as it was being proposed.
That was his notice. Other mayors and city councils, some if not most of which have already passed 2017 budgets with the projected road tax money included, got no heads up.
Fortunately, other Quorum Court members, including some who support the tax shift, weren't willing to do it so suddenly.
The court is scheduled to consider the matter again at its regular 6 p.m. meeting on Thursday.
Expect Jordan and other mayors to be there to make the case -- loudly and clearly -- that the county owes its city residents more consideration.
Commentary on 12/11/2016