BLYTHEVILLE — The city of Blytheville is considering a plan to repay the state tax sales that its trash and sanitation services have failed to pay since 2004.
The Jonesboro Sun reported that finance director John Callens, along with Mayor James Sanders, are negotiating a deal with the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration to repay a debt of about $970,000. With penalties and interest, the city owes about $1.6 million.
The plan, which has not been finalized yet, would waive the penalties and reduce the accumulated interest charges by three-fourths.
Callens self-reported the failure to pay taxes after he realized that the fee residents pay for trash and sanitation services was collected by public works, but never made it to the state. Callens and Sanders in different jobs during the peak of the negligence, so pinpointing the origin of the error would be difficult.