Voters in Stuttgart and Sharp County on Tuesday participated in special elections to decide whether to fund hospitals in their communities, and in Conway County a measure to bolster economic development was on the ballot.
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Stuttgart voters approved a 1 percent city wide sales tax that is expected to raise $2.2 million a year for the city’s Baptist Health Medical Center.
Complete but unofficial results were:
For. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806 Against . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .190
Hospital administrator Terry Amstutz said the hospital system lost about $1.2 million last year because of federal Medicare cuts and needs the extra funds to keep services at a state-of-the-art level.
Sharp County voters rejected a 1.5 percent countywide sales tax that would have raised approximately $2.6 million annually for a new hospital there.
The tax was split between a 1 percent tax and 0.5 percent tax on the ballot.
Complete but unofficial results for the 1 percent tax were:
For. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,239 Against . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,452
Complete but unofficial results for the 0.5 percent sales tax were: For. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,240 Against . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,441
In Conway County, voters rejected a 0.25 percent countywide sales tax that would have lasted five years and generated about $4.25 million for economic recruitment.
Complete but unofficial results were:
For. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .852 Against . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,054
If it had passed, the tax revenue would have been used to attract businesses to Conway County, train the workforce and build new infrastructure to promote development, according to Brandon Baker, chief executive officer of the Conway County Economic Development Corporation.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 03/12/2014