FORT SMITH -- Early voting begins Tuesday in a special election seeking a temporary 1 percent sales tax that would raise about $15.5 million to complete the U.S. Marshals Museum.
Construction is underway on the 50,000-square-foot, $19.1 million facility that is being built on the banks of the Arkansas River, but museum officials have said they have come up short on donations to pay for developing the interior that will hold the exhibits telling the U.S. Marshals Service's 230-year story.
At the request of museum officials, Fort Smith city directors passed ordinances in December levying the sales tax for nine months and setting the special election on the tax for March 12.
Residents can vote from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and March 11 in Room G8 at the Sebastian County Courthouse. The city's 19 vote centers will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. March 12. Residents can vote at any vote center they choose.
The ballot title is "1% Sales Tax and Use."
It reads: "Adoption of a one percent (1%) local sales and use tax within the City of Fort Smith, Arkansas (the 'City') for a period of nine (9) months with the tax ending on the last day of the nine (9) month period. The net collections of the tax after deduction of the administrative charges of the State of Arkansas and required rebates will be used to acquire a facility to be known as the United States Marshals Museum (the 'Marshals Museum'). The City will form an independent public facilities board which will purchase the Marshals Museum and lease it back to the U.S. Marshals Museum Inc., an Arkansas nonprofit corporation, under a long-term lease with a nominal rental free and clear of any further expense to the City or the public facilities board."
If approved, collections would begin July 1, according to information that museum officials presented to city directors in December. The tax would expire March 31, 2020. Museum Foundation President Jim Dunn said any tax money that isn't needed for completion of the museum would go toward building a museum endowment fund.
According to the museum, it will cost $15,363,113 in tax money to complete the facility. Of that, $9,421,800 would be for experience production; $807,950 for startup costs; $2,233,363 for furniture, fixtures and equipment; $2.5 million for working capital; and $400,000 for contingency.
Museum officials asked for the tax after a large potential contribution to the museum, a match challenge, fell through in August, Dunn said. Officials realized they could not come up with the money to develop the exhibit experience for the museum by the announced opening date of Sept. 24 -- the 230th anniversary of the Marshals Service.
The museum will still be dedicated Sept. 24, but the museum won't open to the public until next year. If the tax doesn't pass, officials have said, the opening will be delayed indefinitely as they continue fundraising efforts.
Dunn said the museum also could not conduct an adequate campaign for the tax in time to place the issue on the Nov. 6 general election ballot. The alternative was to ask for the special election.
Opponents of the tax have argued that special elections are unfair because turnout usually is low and gives an advantage to those asking for the election.
The museum held three community meetings to answer questions from the public and talk about what the museum will offer the community.
They said Fort Smith was chosen as the site for the museum because of its deep connection to the Marshals Service. Museum President Patrick Weeks said more deputy marshals have been killed in the line of duty in the Fort Smith area than in any other part of the country. Also, the community was vocal for the Marshals Service to "Bring it Home" and choose Fort Smith as the location for its national museum.
The museum provides education in civic literacy that is lacking in schools today, officials said. Its education component has been active for nine years, providing programs and materials to adults and students on the Constitution, law enforcement and the rule of law. Its sixth annual spring lecture series begins Monday.
Officials say a feasibility study shows the museum will draw more than 125,000 visitors to Fort Smith a year and generate $13 million to $22 million annually in economic impact.
Opponents, led by Citizens Against Unfair Taxation and Fort Smith attorney Joey McCutchen's Transparency in Government group, have said they support the museum but not the sales tax.
They say the tax will be an unfair burden on residents. They also argue that it actually will be a permanent tax, despite the nine-month term, or that museum officials will ask for another tax in the future.
Opponents have called the tax a bailout and the public facilities board an "end run" around the Constitution, and they said museum officials should continue to raise private funds to complete the project.
State Desk on 03/03/2019