Calhoun County to vote on new sales tax
Local official seeks funds to put roof over rodeo arena
HAMPTON — Calhoun County voters will decide in March whether or not to approve a new half-percent sales tax, which County Judge Floyd Nutt is advancing to pay for local park improvements.
Nutt is especially keen on using proceeds, which he anticipates will be up to $800,000 annually, to put a roof over one of the top assets in the county: Hogskin Arena, which hosts a number of rodeos a year. Making the 5,000-seat facility an all-weather attraction will help bring economic development to Arkansas’ smallest county and provide more recreational opportunities for the area’s rural population.
The Quorum Court approved putting the sales tax question on the March 2024 ballot Monday night by a 5-3 vote.
From a revenue perspective, Calhoun County benefits from hosting Highland Industrial Park, 18,780 acres of factories and warehousing with a special focus on the aerospace and defense industries. Last month, the state announced a new $33 million RTX and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems missile manufacturing facility that will create 30 jobs. The industrial park is Calhoun County’s biggest employer.
Though commonly associated with neighboring Camden, the industrial park is located across the county line, generating property tax revenue.
“We did the abatement,” Nutt said. “We give them tax breaks to expand. We’ll give a 30% to 65% tax break — but when they newly construct stuff, if we give them a 30% tax break, then we’re still getting that much more in taxes from what they build.”
Most workers commute out of the county for jobs. The county has no hospital, grocery or nursing home, though it does have two dol
lar stores.
Even so, while citizens in many localities nationwide struggle with high property taxes local governments need to fund operations, Nutt said there is a ceiling in Calhoun County, which provides enough to maintain ambulance service and a K-12 public school. Solid waste pickup comes once a week.
“There’s always more that you’d like to do,” Nutt, in office for 21 years, said of local government services. He pointed out that other counties have a 1% sales tax to pay for road repair. Calhoun County has 140 miles of road, including 20 it recently took over from the state in order for it to finance reconstruction of U.S. 167 as a four-lane highway through Hampton.
Nutt does not think that was fair, but he didn’t want to see a bottleneck in the county seat. After several motorist deaths, intersections are safer now. But Nutt said he worries about the condition of the county’s other roads. The local sewer and water infrastructure, built after World War II, will have to be repaired in the near future, too.
Much of what the 4,700 residents of Calhoun County have, they have helped pay for themselves. Nutt said voters are amenable if educated about the benefits taxes will bring. Voters approved a 1% sales tax for general expenditures in 2015 with around 70% of the vote after Nutt held town hall meetings about it.
“I’m hoping to educate people on the half-cent sales tax on the parks, that people will go along with it and support it,” he said.
The “Hogskin” nickname comes from hungry poachers during the Depression killing free-range pigs, taking the meat and leaving owner-tagged skins behind at the scene of the crime. Calhoun County’s biggest event is Hogskin Holidays every April, with a two-day rodeo at the arena and a parade in Hampton.
A local riding club uses the arena, and the high school holds rodeos there in September and October.
The arena sits in a county park, 40 acres donated by the timber industry, with a softball field and 80 recreational vehicle hookup sites. “It’s been probably 35 years in the making,” Nutt said, adding that nothing like it exists in surrounding counties.
“We created the arena. We took it down from Ouachita County,” he said. “The county bought it, relocated it, named it Hogskin Arena. Every year since then there’s been a little bit of improvement, with something every year.”
Aluminum-and-concrete bleachers have replaced old wooden ones, alongside added deluxe seating for sponsors and two concession stands. There’s a corral, a stable and bullpens — 170 stalls inside and out — two entrances and exits, and plenty of parking. The pitched-roof cover would go from the bullpens and over the grounds to the roping boxes.
Nutt noted Hogskin Arena’s broader economic benefits. Event attendees eat at local restaurants, and at least one motorist per event needs a flat repaired at Rick’s Tire Services. Broach Hardware & Feed Store benefits from horses that need to be fed.
“If we could get something done with a cover over it, the weather wouldn’t hinder planning. Then we could do whatever,” Nutt said. “We could have concerts, we could have monster truck shows, we could have volleyball tournaments. You could just plan. You could do it rain or shine. But you can’t plan something like cutting horse shows or ropings. There’s several types of equine events that you can’t bring in now.”
Nutt has ideas for more recreational activities in the four county parks beyond covering Hogskin Arena. He hears constituents talk about wanting pickleball courts. Some old playgrounds need to be replaced. Another path could be built like an existing one, a 1¼-mile paved loop through woodland built with an Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism grant that has proved popular for exercise.