Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
DAY in COURT
Benton County voters to decide on tax increase
BENTONVILLE — A proposed court building meets all the criteria discussed for years. It’s the right size, for the right price and now is the right time to build it, County Judge Barry Moehring said.
A green light to proceed is up to Benton County voters.
Early voting starts Tuesday in a March 12 special election for a one-eighth-cent sales tax increase to pay for a $30 million courthouse. The tax would be for 54 months and would equal a little more than 12 cents on every $100 in sales, Moehring said.
The new courthouse would be built on Northeast Second Street in downtown Bentonville.
The county would spend another $5 million to update the downtown courthouse, including the courtroom on the third floor. That room would be remodeled to be used as a community meeting space, an area for the Quorum Court to meet and a place to hold mock trial events, Moehring said. The courthouse was built in 1928 and opened with one circuit judge.
The tax increase would allow the county to consolidate the courts, to increase
security and to make it more convenient for those who go to court, Moehring said.
“It’s a big deal to get this to a vote,” he said. “This has been kicked around for 20 years. The need is not in dispute but getting here has been a challenge.”
There is opposition to the sales tax increase and the building. Members of the Benton County Libertarian Party have attended many town halls about the election, using their time before the microphone to argue the proposed building is much too big and residents already pay enough in taxes.
Michael Kalagias, president of the Libertarian Party, has said the county wants to make a statement by building a grand facility. He has called it a “monument piece” several times.
Some residents who have attended the town halls said they can see the need for a new court building but aren’t happy with how it will be paid for. Others prefer a location near the county jail. Some questioned
the need for a special election and whether the county was trying to “sneak” the measure past voters a week before spring break starts.
Americans For Prosperity based in Arlington, Va., has sent out text messages leading up to early voting. Ben Dykes, a local volunteer for Americans For Prosperity, said the texts were a “get out the vote campaign.”
“Everyone across the board sees the need,” Dykes said of a new courthouse. “But it should have been held during the general election when there would have been an extremely high turnout.”
Meanwhile, a committee in support of the tax and new building called Better Courthouse, Better Benton County has raised more than $39,000 and spent a little over $700 as of Feb. 14, according to the group’s most recent filing with the Arkansas Ethics Commission.
Bentonville and Rogers passed resolutions backing the plan as did the Benton County Bar Association. The chambers of commerce in Bentonville, Rogers and Siloam Springs and the Farm Bureau also are in favor of the plan, Moehring said.
THE BUILDING
The county and the Walton Family Foundation commissioned a needs assessment for a new courthouse in 2014. The study showed a new court building was needed. Initial concepts came in around $45 million, Moehring said. A study from the University of Arkansas showed the courts had a $3 million-a-year economic impact in downtown Bentonville, he said.
In 2016, the company Dewberry did a study and six plans with locations near the county jail on Southwest 14th Street and downtown. The chosen plan comes from one of those downtown concepts. The Quorum Court passed a resolution supporting a new court building downtown in March 2017.
Hight Jackson, the architecture firm hired by the county, was able to take the concept and mold it into a building that’s 87,000 square feet in four stories and a basement. The plans looked at in 2016 were all 104,000 square feet or more.
The top story would be finished later with two more courtrooms. The building would have at least a 50-year lifespan, Moehring said. Work would start in the summer if voters pass the sales tax, and it would take about 24 months to complete the project, he said.
“We’ve been very vigilant in working with Hight Jackson to deliver the appropriate square footage that meets the building requirements, and in doing so they have keep it very compact with high levels of space efficiency, thus also likely leading to a smaller overall square footage than the Dewberry concept,” Moehring said.
Moehring envisions a court campus with the new building and the old courthouse. Prosecutors and public defenders would occupy parts of the renovated courthouse.
Circuit Court is held in various locations around the city, including the annex building across the street from the current courthouse and a building on Main Street.
The 10,500-square-foot annex was built in 1935 and once housed the city Post Office. The 4,900-square-foot building on Main Street was built in 1968. The old Post Office building would be preserved, but its use hasn’t been determined, Moehring said. The Main Street facility is a “utilitarian building,” but its real worth could be its downtown location if the county were to sell it, he said.
Court complexes in Mecklenburg County, N.C.; the Osceola County Government Center in Kissimmee, Fla.; and the Seattle Justice Center among others share some of the same design concepts as the proposed Benton County building, according to the National Center for State Courts, which worked with the county.
Third-party support includes the donation of land where the building would be built from the Walton Family Foundation, a $2 million grant from the foundation and a parking deck for up to 400 vehicles by Off-Street Parking District No. 3, Moehring said. Third-party contributions are valued close to $10 million, but those incentives are tied to a downtown location, he said. The offers will terminate Dec. 31, according to county documents.
THE FUNDING
Financing plans considered by the Quorum Court included a dedicated sales tax from 1 cent to one-eighthcent, two plans involving long-term financing with a mixture of general fund revenue, two road tax millage plans with long-term financing and a hybrid of multiple funding mechanisms.
“There were two philosophies — pay me now or pay me later,” Moehring said. “This is the smallest tax possible in the shortest period of time.”
Justice of the Peace Pat Adams proposed a 1-cent sales tax for eight months, which would have generated $42 million, but that plan never gained traction with the other members of the Quorum Court. Adams is now on board with the proposed one-eighth-cent sales tax increase and spoke in favor of it at several meetings.
The county already has a 1-cent sales tax, and the revenue it produces is growing. Sales tax revenue has increased an average of 7.12 percent since 2012, county comptroller Brenda Guenther said. The tax brought in a little more than $10 million in 2018, and the 2019 budget forecasts an increase of 8.45 percent, according to information provided by Guenther.
Most of the 1-cent sales tax revenue goes to the cities; the county gets 19.1 percent of the 1 cent, Guenther said.
The last time the county asked for a special sales tax to build facilities was in 1995, according to county documents. Voters approved a half-cent sales tax to build the county jail on Southwest 14th Street. The tax was collected for 36 months.
There was also talk of cutting the budget to pay for a new courthouse, but Moehring and the Quorum Court were reluctant. The county budget has about $56 million in it, but about 66 percent of that money goes to the Road Department, the Sheriff’s Office and the jail.
County residents would be hurt more than city residents if cuts to services occur, Moehring said.
“There were a lot of people involved in this process, and we want this problem solved,” he said. “This is the plan we could collectively agree on.”
County officials said residents won’t bear all the brunt of the tax because nonresidents who visit the county also will pay for it when they eat out, shop and stay in local hotels.
THE ARGUMENT
Tom Allen has been on the Quorum Court for 19 years. He has seen the problems the judges and the court system face with each passing year.
“There has always been a need, and it’s still there today,” he said. “We’ve discussed this issue in every possible way. Some people don’t like the location. That ship has sailed. It’s not a debatable issue. We’ve looked at every nook and cranny, under every rock, for more funding and to not increase taxes.
“It’s really difficult to make the average citizen see the need,” Allen said of a new court building. “They see the need for a jail or the Road Department. Most people don’t see the courts every day.”
Circuit court judges are spread among buildings close to the downtown square and the Juvenile Judicial Center near the jail. A bill in the current legislative session would add another circuit judge in the 19th Judicial West, which encompasses Benton County, Moehring said. Case filings have increased in the county from 9,238 in 2014 to 11,785 in 2017, according to county information. A new judge would start on Jan. 1, 2021, before a new court building is completed, he said.
Moehring has routinely touted increased safety at town hall meetings to support the tax. Prisoners who are arraigned before Circuit Judge Robin Green in her courtroom in the historic courthouse sit right next to the public separated by a small aisle. The new building will have a secure holding area where inmates can be brought into court one at a time.
“People have no idea,” Moehring said. “What they see on TV is not what it is like here.”
A sally port and secure holding area would be in the basement for prisoners brought from the county jail. There would be one secure public entrance with a metal detector. A second line with a metal detector could be used on busy court days like Mondays, when most arraignments take place.
Rogers Mayor Greg Hines said the good flow of people in a courthouse can’t be overstated. Hines saw Moehring’s presentation at the annual Benton County Intergovernmental Cooperation Council on Jan. 29.
Hines, a former law enforcement officer, said he still remembers the “cattle call” of Monday arraignments. Things could get hectic at times, he said.
“And that was before we had metal detectors,” he said. The new building addresses many old concerns, he said. “They have taken into consideration all the security trends I am aware of,” he said.
Moehring has said there is no Plan B if the vote fails on March 12.
“We will keeping holding court like we do now,” he told a group in Bentonville on Wednesday night. “We will continue to function in inadequate facilities that will continue to be inadequate. It’s what we’ve been doing for years.”