Sales-tax rise OK’d in Ouachita County

CAMDEN — Ouachita County voters in a special election Tuesday overwhelming favored three initiatives resulting in a 1 percent increase in the countywide sales tax that will fund renovations and maintenance at the Ouachita County Medical Center.

“The county has given us our future and their future,” said the hospital’s president and chief executive officer, Peggy Abbott. “This speaks volumes for our county.”

One measure on Tuesday’s ballots was a half-percent sales tax to pay for facility maintenance and upkeep. Two other measures — the issuance of $3.5 million in bonds to refinance a 2003 renovation project and the issuance of $6.9 million in improvement bonds for new renovations — would be funded by another half-percent tax.

Complete but unofficial results are:

Half-percent sales tax for maintenance and upkeep For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,023 Against . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .367

Refinancing bonds For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,996 Against . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .382

Improvement bonds For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,016 Against . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

The 98-bed facility was built in 1952, funded by a tax initiative that expired in 1964, Abbott said.

Since then, the hospital has been self-supported.

The tax will bring in an estimated $2.8 million a year for five years and then about $1.4 million after the half-percent maintenance and upkeep tax expires in 2020.

“During the last five years, I’ve seen a trend toward dramatic changes,” Abbott said, referring to rising costs and lower Medicare and other federal reimbursements. “It’s the most challenging time in health care.

“We were treading water,” Abbott said. “We need to improve our building, but we also needed financial relief.”

Robert McAdoo, the county judge of Ouachita County, said he was pleased with the large margin of victory for the tax. About 84 percent of voters favored each measure.

“We’re glad the hospital will stay,” he said Tuesday evening of the facility that employs 447 people. “The hospital came to us with a list of needs. They weren’t wants, they were needs.

“They were trying to get on the front end of this before it got really critical,” he said.

McAdoo said having a hospital in the area is a recruiting tool for new industry.

“If there’s no hospital, it’s basically a black eye for anyone thinking of coming to town,” he said.

There are 21 hospitals in Arkansas currently supported by sales taxes, according to information from the Arkansas Hospital Association. Mississippi County voters supported a half-percent sales tax in October to help fund two hospitals in Osceola and Blytheville.