Fort Smith eyes sales tax for museum

Proposed levy would help push project to completion

FORT SMITH — City directors will consider next week whether to call for a special election in March to allow voters to decide on levying a nine-month, 1 percent sales tax that would provide the U.S. Marshals Museum with enough money to complete the project.

Museum officials made a plea to city directors Tuesday to allow a vote on the tax to raise more than $15 million to install exhibits in the museum, which is under construction, and provide for furnishings, startup costs, working capital and contingencies.

Museum Foundation President Jim Dunn told city directors after raising more than $35 million over the past nine years, there wasn’t enough time to raise more.

Delaying the start of construction would risk having to pay more for steel and labor. The paid staff was a continuing drain on finances and the number of potential donors wouldn’t bring in enough money to finish the project, even after cutting the budget by $4 million to about $53.5 million, he said.

“It has taken us since 2009-2010 to raise this much money, and we reached the

point where we felt the uncertainty of fundraising required us to do what we’re doing now,” Dunn said.

Museum officials submitted a proposal last week asking for a special election March 12. If voters approve the tax, it will go into effect July 1 and sunset March 31, 2020.

City Director George Catsavis said he supported the museum but didn’t like a special election would be held.

“My constituents, their sticking point, is the term ‘special election.’ They see that as a stacked deck,” Catsavis said.

He said he saw a special election as being skewed toward the petitioner where a general election would bring out a greater cross section of the community.

And residents already have a heavy burden, he said. They are paying high sewer rates to pay for a federal consent decree, they approved a higher property tax in May and they have a local sales tax rate of 9.75 percent.

“We’re struggling to pay the bills. We can barely afford what we’ve got. We don’t need another tax,” he said.

Dunn said museum officials wouldn’t have objected to putting the tax question on the Nov. 6 general election ballot. But by the time they concluded there wasn’t enough money to finish the project, there wasn’t enough time to go through the process of getting the issue on the ballot.

Other city directors expressed support for the museum and for allowing residents to vote on a tax. Director Keith Lau said he wanted assurances the city wouldn’t be saddled with any of the museum project expenses.

Because the nonprofit museum would be using tax money for the project, museum officials proposed the formation of a public facilities board of community members that would own the grounds and the museum building and lease it to the U.S. Marshals Museum to run.

The proposal said the board would purchase the property from the museum for what the sales tax generated. Museum officials have insisted the city would have no financial responsibility for the museum and would have no control over it.

The mayor would appoint the board members who would have staggered terms, Dunn said. The mayor and the directors would appoint their replacements when their terms expired.

City Attorney Jerry Canfield told directors city ordinances and state law provide for public facilities boards as the proper entities to spend public money for public purposes.

The U.S. Marshals Service in 2007 chose Fort Smith as the site for its national museum over other cities around the country. Dunn said Fort Smith won the designation with its enthusiastic Bring it Home campaign, its historic connection with the Marshals Service and residents’ blood relations with the marshals who served in the area and even with the outlaws they hunted.

He reminded city directors more marshals died in the line of duty in the western district of Arkansas than in any other district in the country.

“How can this museum be any place other than Fort Smith?” Dunn said.