BENTON SALES-TAX ELECTION: Close vote expected on tax

LITTLE ROCK — Early voting is already under way, but a small turnout is expected for Benton’s special balloting on a half-cent sales tax increase, and predictions are that a few votes, one way or the other, will decide the issue.

“I think it will be a very close vote,” Benton Mayor Rick Holland said.

While the two-term mayor would like to see the additional funding for the city’s public safety budget, he said it is important that the issue isin the hands of the voters.

“It is up to the voters to decide what level of service they want, and that is the way it should be,” Holland said.

Dave Mattingly, chairman of the Citizens Public Safety Campaign Committee that created and advocates the funding plan, said support for the new revenues is growing, and he believes it will pass.

The proposal on the ballot calls for a half cent increase in the city’s sales tax rate. This would bring the sales tax in Benton to two cents for every dollar spent in the city. That half-cent collection would be dedicated funding for the police and fire departments.

“We started as the underdog, but now I would say the chances are about 50-50,” Mattingly said. “The message is out. How can you serve a larger population with the same size police and fire departments?”

Earlier voting began on Tuesday and will be held all this week and on Monday before the official polling day on Tuesday.

The committee chairman said he has been told that voter turnout for special elections is usually only about 20 percent, or one in every five registered voters will go to the polls to vote on the issue.

“The fact that taxes are involved draws more attention,” Mattingly said.

The ballot states that new funding could only be used for personnel costs, equipment, to build, expand or equip new or existing public safety facilities and to establish and maintain an advanced life-support rescue service for the city.

“If passed, the new funds would go to a separate city account and there would be a quarterly audit,” Mattingly said. “Safeguards are in place.”

The ordinance on the ballot would also stipulate that 75 percent of the City of Benton’s general fund be used for police and fire services or the 911 communications system.

“This would keep politicians in the future from saying that public safety has its own funding and so general funds now going to those services could be cut,” Mattingly said.

In 2008, $8.2 million dollars or 81 percent of the general fund was budgeted for public safety departments.

The public safety campaign committee began in 2007 when the Benton Board of Alderman selected a group of citizens to assist the Health and Safety Committee.

“Our charter was to review the current and future public safety needs of the city,” Mattingly said.

The committee looked at factors such as populations growth, the increase in calls for police and fire services within the city and compared the size of Benton’s police and fire departments with those of communities of a similar size.

According to a report by the committee, the population of Benton has increased 27.3 percent in the last eight years and the police department has increased from 54 to 57 officers. The fire department now has three fewer firefighters than it did in 2000.

The comparison Arkansas cities reviewed were Russellville, Texarkana and West Memphis.Mattingly said the city of Benton places last in the comparison of police and fire officers per thousand of the cities’ population. Benton has 1.89 officers per thousand, while Russellville has a 2.11 ratio, West Memphis has a ratio of 2.68 and Texarkana has 2.73.

For firefighters, Benton’s ratio is 1.79, while Russellville has 2.44 firefighters per thousand, Texarkana reported a ratio of 1.92 and West Memphis tops the list with a ratio of 2.97 per thousand population.

“We are stretching the rubber band of our public safety services,” Mattingly said. “There are no real patrols in the city. Officers are just responding from call to call to call. When another call comes in, police can not respond as quickly as they would like when they’re tied up with another call.”

Both Mattingly and Mayor Holland said opposition to the proposed new tax is coming from citizens who are resisting any tax increase.

“Any tax proposal is inflammatory, as it should be,” Mattingly said. “I have no argument with those who are tired of taxes.”

However, Mattingly said the proposed increase was building a stronger infrastructure for the city’s future. He said the improvements that are possible with new funding will not end crime or fires in Benton, but it will make for a safer community.

“There is no such thing as enough,” he said, “but we can do more. It only makes sense.” - wbryan@arkansasonline.com

Tri-Lakes, Pages 57 on 11/05/2009

Print Headline: BENTON SALES-TAX ELECTION Close vote expected on tax