F or the second time in the short life of the Go Forward Pine Bluff tax, members of the Pine Bluff City Council have tried to rob the fund.
The tax was passed in 2017 by more than a 2-to-1 vote after organizers of Go Forward Pine Bluff had worked for a year to figure out what Pine Bluff needed and then had put a proposed tax on the ballot in hopes of being able to accomplish those goals.
That was not just the work of a handful of city leaders or politicians. Scores of Pine Bluff residents, people from all walks of life, worked and studied and listened and debated and discussed what could be done to make Pine Bluff a better place to live. And it was because of all that deep and extensive buy-in that the vote for the five-eighths-cent tax passed easily.
A mere two years later, in 2019, council members could not contain themselves. They saw that pot of Go Forward money sitting there and they dearly wanted to help themselves to it. And they did, albeit briefly. A few days after that initial vote, the action was rescinded on the promise that other money would be found to pay for some of the projects the council members wanted.
And now, two years later, once again, the council has tried to help themselves to Go Forward's money. Actually, they tried three times to take money from the fund because there were three proposals to take it and they all failed on four-four votes. Those voting to filch the fund were Council Members Ivan Whitfield, Glen Brown Sr., Steven Mays and Bruce Lockett.
The secret to the council members' thievery, is that, when the tax was passed, there was nothing legally binding the sales tax collections to the Go Forward projects. Simply put, the tax was based on a promise to voters that what was taken in would be used for Go Forward improvements. Consequently, the council members rationalize that they are in a better position to know where that money needs to go than the thousands of people who voted for the Go Forward tax.
On a personal level, imagine that you have been working a second job and saving that money in order to buy a car -- a car that will put you in a much better position in life -- and then your brother comes along and takes your money in order to make some other improvements around the house. His rationale was that he felt that those improvements were more important than your dreams of a car.
Broadly speaking, there is nothing wrong with some of the proposals that these council members are wanting for the city. But if those items are as important to them as they say they are, maybe those council members should put their own proposed tax on the ballot and then do all the legwork and fundraising and organizing that Go Forward did to get its tax passed.
To simply reach over and grab Go Forward's money is wrong. Those projects have been promised and are planned and many are in mid-stream. To take that money would cripple the whole undertaking and would be a gross injustice to the people who have been pushing for Pine Bluff's improvement.
In short, we have never witnessed a more irresponsible and faithless act of city governance than this attempted raid on tax dollars. Thanks to the actions of Lloyd Holcomb Jr., Joni Alexander, Glen Brown Jr. and Steven Shaner, the day was saved.
The Go Forward tax is on the books for seven years total, which is three years from now. Let's find a way to leave this project alone for the brief period of time it has remaining and let them finish what we all started.