Support our roads

Dear editor:

I support improving our roads (the "Pave-It-Forward" campaign).

I want to address some issues raised in recent letters regarding the sales tax extension.

Several writers have complained that extending the sales tax is a new tax and imply that tax rates will increase. The proposal is to extend the existing sales tax -- the actual rate will not change. There will be no tax increase.

One writer said those supporting the bond issue "have reached some level of financial security" and that people on "fixed incomes and the poor" should oppose extending the sales tax. I am retired and live on a fixed income. I do not have a lot of money. Yet I support the extension of the sales tax. Improving area roads will make traveling safer and bolster our economy.

Another writer claimed the tax would cost a four-person household hundreds of dollars a year. The writer took the estimated household cost of the tax and mistakenly multiplied it by the number of residents in a typical family (four people). Your rent/mortgage does not increase fourfold merely because you have four people living in your home. The letter writer should have taken the estimated household cost and divided it by four. If he had done the math properly, he would have discovered that the tax will cost each member of a four-person household about $1.50 per month.

Some writers have claimed that Hot Springs has the third-highest sales tax rate in the state, implying that extending the sales tax is unfair. In truth, many other Arkansas cities have higher sales tax rates. Hot Springs' general sales tax rate is 9.5 percent. General sales taxes are higher in Springdale, Fort Smith, Fayetteville, Pine Bluff, El Dorado, White Hall and Rison, (all 9.75 percent); De Queen (9.88 percent); Blytheville, Monticello, Osceola and Murfreesboro (all at 10 percent); Texarkana, Nashville and Newport (all at 10.25 percent); Magnolia and Forrest City (both at 10.38 percent); Stuttgart, Dumas, Lake Village, Helena, Durmott and Gould (all at 10.5 percent); West Memphis and Ashdown (both at 10.75 percent); De Witt (11 percent); and Marion and Camden (both 11.25 percent).

While much attention has focused on using the money from the bond issue to extend the MLK bypass out to Hot Springs Village, almost half of the money will be used on other road projects. The list of proposed projects is very long, but includes significant improvements to Airport Road, focusing on the intersections with the MLK bypass and Majestic Lodge Road. Plans also include improvements to Albert Pike at the bypass and at the intersections with Thornton Ferry Road and Mountain Pine Road. Within the city, plans call for completing West Belding over to Malvern Avenue, thereby creating another east-west connector between Central and Malvern avenues. And this is only a partial list of the planned road improvements. It is a mistake to say that the money will only benefit Hot Spring Village residents. Road improvements will be made countywide and everyone will benefit.

I urge voters to understand the facts. Vote "yes" to improve our roads.

Verna E. Linder

Hot Springs

Editorial on 06/27/2016

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