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Barling Hones 'Pennies For Pavement' Tax Proposal [Times Record, Fort Smith, Ark. :: ](Times Record (Fort Smith, AR) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) July 25--Barling leaders are forging ahead with a street tax proposal they hope voters will embrace in November. The city plans to ask for a 1 percent street tax at the Nov. 4 general election. The tax initiative, officially dubbed Pennies for Pavement, was spearheaded earlier this year by Ward 1 Director Bruce Farrar. On Tuesday, Barling City Attorney Matthew Ketcham presented the Board of Directors with a draft tax proposal. "I wanted to be really specific about what this 1-cent sales tax is for," he said. "I put specifically for the immediate improvement of the city's roads, streets, alleyways, curbs, gutters, drainage and sidewalks. That's what this will be for, and that's what it will be limited to. "It won't be for fancy lighting, landscaping and building a park or whatever." Ketcham also told the Board of Directors he drafted the tax proposal with a 10-year sunset clause. "It doesn't have to be in there," Ketcham said. "It can be perpetual or we can leave it in there for a period of however long you want." Farrar said Ketcham's draft was OK as-is. "As far as I'm concerned, the 10-year date is fine," he added. Directors agreed to review Ketcham's draft before their next business meeting in two weeks. "If everybody's happy with it, you can vote it in at the next meeting and we can start getting it to the election commissioners, get it published and do all the statutory things we've got to do to get it on the ballot in November," Ketcham said. The current sales-tax rate in Barling is 8.75 percent, a penny less than neighboring Fort Smith. City Administrator Mike Tanner said the street tax likely would bring in an amount similar to the 1 percent fire department tax -- an average of $250,000 a year. The move for a tax was in part prompted by an anticipated surge in traffic from a future shopping mall. Developers plan to build a 70-store, outdoor mall at the intersection of Arkansas 22 and 59. The property, which sits on Chaffee Crossing land, was sold in June 2013 for $2.2 million to a group from Hot Springs called Chaffee Crossing Real Estate Inc. A preliminary rendering shows a retail center, restaurant and hotel. Barling's ballot issue, although voted on during the general election, will technically be classified as a special election, Ketcham said. "The statute says that for a sales-tax vote, you have to have a special election," he said. "It can be held on Nov. 4, which is Election Day. It will cost us a little bit, but not nearly as much than if we held a special election of our own on another day." ___ (c)2014 Times Record (Fort Smith, Ark.) Visit Times Record (Fort Smith, Ark.) at www.swtimes.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |