Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge met with local officials for a roundtable discussion on a variety of topics Tuesday at The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce, including Issue 1 on Tuesday's general election ballot.
Rutledge discussed what she called the importance of the ballot issue, a legislatively referred constitutional amendment. Passage of the issue would make the 0.50% state sales tax supporting state and local road construction permanent. If the amendment fails, the tax will expire in 2023.
Rutledge said Garland County risks losing $2 million annually if the amendment does not pass, with $800,000 at risk for the city of Hot Springs alone.
Hot Springs City Manager Bill Burrough, who was at the meeting, said afterward that the majority of the city's paving budget comes from the sales tax. He said, without the tax, the city may see fewer roads paved, a reduction in other services, or potentially a millage to cover that cost. He said that's something he doesn't think anyone wants to do, but he thinks it would be necessary if the amendment doesn't pass.
"That money is still going to have to come from somewhere, and that's either going to be reduced law enforcement, reduced other areas of the general fund. There's not a lot of places you can go to to find that kind of money in a general fund. There's not that many departments to choose from other than public safety, which is the largest of the two," he said.
Burrough said passage of the issue is important for both tourists and residents.
"A tourist may come for a week and leave, but our residents drive them (roads) every day, so it's important that we provide that service to those who live here," he said.
County Judge Darryl Mahoney, who also attended the meeting, said afterward the funds the county itself would lose represent almost all of its paving budget, as well. Should it be eliminated, he said they may attempt to pull money from other entities in the county, though he said they have pretty slim budgets for all departments. He said they could also reduce services to offset loss of revenue.
Mahoney said a third choice would be a millage, but noted he would not assess a millage without the vote of the people.
However, Reggie Cowan, chairman of the Garland County Tea Party, said in a phone interview he wants the Legislature to find other avenues of funding besides taxing the people.
"I would rather they, people, vote no, and then have the legislators go back to the table and sit down and figure out how they're going to do this," he said.
Cowan said it was a "cop out" for the legislators to put the decision on the citizens.
"They should do the hard work and sit down and try to figure out, you know, how to keep taxes off the backs of the voters," he said.
For instance, Cowan said he would rather have funds reallocated from something like the general budget than ask citizens to "cough up the money." He noted Arkansans pay one of the highest combined sales taxes in the nation.
"Taxes affect those the most that can afford it the least," he said.
More information about the proposed amendment is available in the Election 2020 section of The Sentinel-Record's website, https://www.hotsr.com/news/votegarlandcounty/.