Moehring sticks with Plan A for paying for courts building

BENTONVILLE — County Judge Barry Moehring has all the gavels riding on his proposal to pay for a new courts building with a sales tax increase.

“We’ve come this far with this particular plan, and if it fails in March, we don’t have a Plan B,” Moehring said Wednesday. “This is a product of a lot of collaboration and compromise. There’s no other 24 months of planning in a binder on a shelf.”

Moehring told members of the Quorum Court’s Committee of the Whole on Tuesday night he has no backup plan if voters don’t approve a temporary, one-eighth-cent sales tax in a special election in March.

His comments were in response to Justice of the Peace Mike McKenzie’s suggestion the county should consider putting some money aside in the 2019 budget for repairs or

PLAN A,

other issues in the buildings housing the courts in case the vote fails.

The Quorum Court last month approved the second reading to set an election for the sales tax. The tax would pay for a proposed $30 million building. The county has adopted a building design and a location on Second Street in downtown Bentonville. The third and final reading will be in December. The sales tax would be for about 54 months.

McKenzie said Moehring had told him the same thing before. McKenzie backs a