TRUMANN — The overwhelming defeat of a 1 percent sales tax Tuesday that would have raised revenue for several city departments doesn’t mean Trumann can’t make ends meet, Mayor Sheila Walters said Wednesday.
“We’ll make do with what we’ve got,” she said.
The tax was expected to have raised $780,000 yearly and was proposed to be split evenly among the fire, police, street and sewer departments.
Complete but unofficial results were: FOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 AGAINST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682
Walters said aldermen discussed the sales-tax proposal earlier this year, when the Fire Department requested that the city hire two additional firefighters.
The city didn’t have enough revenue to add new firefighters, so aldermen decided to ask for the sales tax and include the other departments.
“We wanted to see what the people wanted,” Walters said.
Arkansas, Pages 12 on 05/24/2012