We can hardly blame Benton County Quorum Court members for rejecting outright the idea to ask voters, through polling, questions about support for land conservation and a possible tax to support it.
Without a doubt, Northwest Arkansas is a place in need of conservation, i.e., the setting aside and protection of acreage critical to the long-term ecological health of the region. Being in need of conservation is a blessing, really, because it means this region is full of economic activity and population growth. That combination means Northwest Arkansas' political and charitable leadership has choices about how to address problems. No matter how swimmingly things go in a city, county or region, problems need fixing, whether it's homelessness, hunger, gentrification, crime, road conditions and traffic congestion, water, air and noise pollution, diversity and unity, development conflicts or a host of other challenges.
What’s the point?
Benton County leaders were wise to say “not now” to a request to poll voters about support for land conservation and a potential tax to fund it.
Such challenges will always be with us, but the region's toolbox for fixing them has a lot more in it when the economy is going strong and people want to live here. Try solving some of the same problems in an economically depressed area. They're not immune to them at all, yet the options for addressing them seem, and many times are, hard to come by. A robust economy creates opportunities; a flat or receding one creates a sense of treading choppy water.
So, yes, here in Northwest Arkansas, we embrace our challenges as further evidence of our upward trajectory. It comes with the territory.
The Northwest Arkansas Land Trust [nwalandtrust.org], featured in Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette coverage last Sunday, is one organization working to shield important properties from the development pressures in the region. Funded with a $675,000, three-year grant from the Walton Family Foundation, the trust's goal is to raise more money to bring 5,000 additional acres of farmland, wooded areas, riverbanks and wetlands into protected status through voluntary arrangements by landowners.
The donor-supported trust has already made such arrangements on 2,000 acres.
Theirs is sometimes work that can go unappreciated. But who are they really working for? It's not so much this generation as it is the ones to come. The more success the organization has, the more the likelihood some future young person taking in a natural space will ponder, "I wonder why this land was never developed." When they find the answers, they'll learn of a gift delivered to the future by the actions of folks circa 2018.
So what's this go to do with Benton County's Quorum Court? In a move related to the subject of land conservation, representatives of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission and The Trust for Public Land, another nonprofit organization, spoke with the Quorum Court Tuesday evening.
The commission includes representatives from Benton and Washington counties along with Bentonville, Fayetteville, Rogers, Siloam Springs and Springdale. It has been working with the The Trust for Public Land on a plan to "develop a coordinated, voluntary program to protect and promote the region's most valued natural landscapes and open spaces."
Part of Tuesday night's presentation featured the idea to survey Benton County residents to determine the level of interest in conservation efforts and potential support for a tax to support them. The groups' goal is to eventually establish a voter-approved source of money for land acquisition and preservation. They identified property taxes, bond issues and sales taxes as potential sources to support the cause.
That's always going to be a touch sale in Benton County, where the Quorum Court gets squeamish (along with the people they represent) at the idea of any new tax. It's certainly not impossible to get voter approval of a new tax, but voters and the members of the Quorum Court are usually going to give the suggestion a good workover before even considering it.
The Quorum Court's answer: No, but more specifically, now isn't the right time.
Those living under a rock for the last five years (and, really, longer) might have missed that Benton County is in need of a new building to house its judicial system. It's limped along for years with courts spread out in different buildings. The population growth continues to put pressures on that hodge-podge collection of make-do courts. After several years of intensive discussions, the Quorum Court appears ready to put the question of $30 million in courts building funding on the ballot of a special election next March.
The need for the building is a no-brainer. But most anyone can attest to the fact that voter approval of a temporary, short-term tax to fund construction of the five-story building downtown is no certainty.
Asking questions about conservation and a possible tax to fund it will "muddy the waters" of the county's courts facility strategy, county leaders said Tuesday.
"It puts at risk something we've been working on for decades," said Justice of the Peace Tom Allen.
Rogers, home of a good many county voters, already eyes an August election for a bond issue to fund municipal projects. Then there's the November general election that will undoubtedly create a lot of noise. All that happens before the county's' probable March election on the courts building. There really is no sense throwing another issue into the mix, even if it's just asking for voter opinions, not an actual election.
Maybe the time will come when local leaders in Benton and Washington counties will find a tax for land conservation palatable. In Washington County, Fayetteville is eyeballing a bond issue election soon and Springdale just completed one. County leaders from time to time discuss their needs, including a possible expansion of the county jail. A land conservation tax of the kind pitched Tuesday night will have a lot of competition.
Conservation, however, deserves strong attention and, certainly, private donor support in the meantime.
Commentary on 06/15/2018