Voters in Newton County have rejected a proposed 1 percent sales tax that would have provided money to operate the jail and give raises to sheriff's office employees.
The vote Tuesday was:
For 504
Against 580
Newton County Clerk Donnie Davis said Wednesday there are no uncounted ballots that would change the outcome of the election.
"Some people thought they were asking for too much -- one penny, " said Dennis Sain of Jasper, a Newton County justice of the peace. "I think more would have voted for it if they had asked for half a cent."
Sain said the jail will remain open.
"The jail has to be run so it'll have to come out of the county budget somewhere or other," he said. "I don't know exactly what we can do, but we'll keep the jail open."
Sheriff's deputies in Newton County are among the lowest paid in the state, with full-time deputies' salaries starting at $22,820 a year.
On Dec. 5, the Newton County Quorum Court passed an ordinance calling for the special election. According to Ordinance No. 16-18, the ballot wording was to indicate that revenue from the tax would be used "for one or more of the following: a) to equip, furnish, operate and maintain the existing jail, [and] b) for all other law enforcement purposes."
Chief Deputy Jarred Morgan said he would like to see starting salaries for deputies in Newton County increased to about $26,000 per year. He wants to increase other salaries in the sheriff's office accordingly.
In 2008, Newton County voters approved a 0.5 percent sales tax to build a jail to replace the 104-year-old rock jail, which had been deemed unsafe. But voters twice rejected another tax to pay to operate the new jail.
The jail was constructed and began housing prisoners in 2014, two years after it was completed.
To fund operations, Sheriff Keith Slape accepts inmates from other parts of the state, and the Arkansas Department of Correction pays to house them at the jail in Jasper. Inmates from Newton County usually take up fewer than half of the jail's 30 beds.
But Morgan said that's not a guaranteed source of ongoing income.
State Desk on 02/16/2017