UAFS won’t ask for spring vote on tax extension

Economic uncertainty cited at board of visitors meeting

FORT SMITH — The University of Arkansas at Fort Smith has opted not to ask voters this spring to extend a tax that has been a source of revenue for the school for almost two decades.

UAFS Chancellor Terisa Riley told the university board of visitors during a meeting Wednesday that the school understood when it read “all kinds of comments” about the tax extension that many families were very worried about their incomes.

“They didn’t know if they would have stability in incomes,” Riley said. “Some people had been furloughed or laid off, others just concerned that that could happen to them and were really watching their money very closely, to the point that every penny counted.”

“And many of us with stability in our employment really needed to take a better and stronger look at that, and understand that this was not personal about the institution, that it really had to do with the uncertainty of the economy. And, honestly, we heard loud and clear this is something where being able to stand on our own two feet is something that we should be planning for.”

The decision comes after Sebastian County voters during a special election Nov. 3 rejected a proposal to extend the 0.25% county sales tax for 10 more years. The tax is due to end on Jan. 1, 2022, having been approved by voters in 2001 and taking effect on Jan. 1, 2002.

Riley said on Sept. 21 that UAFS takes in about $6 million on average per year from the sales tax, which comprises about 8% of its annual budget. The university has 4,708 students, according to an Arkansas Division of Higher Education preliminary headcount enrollment report.

Arkansas Act 1087 of 2013 gave UAFS the authority to request a sales- tax extension. The Sebastian County Quorum Court approved an ordinance calling the special election on May 26. It states that before the sales tax, between 1965 and 2001, county voters supported UAFS, and its predecessor Westark College, through property taxes.

Rachel Putman, associate director for strategic communications at UAFS, said previously that the university would be able to ask the Quorum Court for a special election to be scheduled between now and September as long as it followed all required deadlines. The extension must be approved by voters at least 90 days before Jan. 1, 2022. Votes must take place and be finalized no later than September.

Putman also had said the university would be responsible for any cost associated with a special election if the ballot question were not added to a primary or general election already planned by the county.

Riley said she felt UAFS can do much internally to recalibrate budgets and what it offers. The university will make sure to use the budget process it currently has to review the recommendations from subcommittees it created of its budget council to look at how it can differently organize the institution, save money and generate additional funding.

Ultimately, Riley said the university believes that it will need to adjust and make cuts. However, it will review the tuition and fee structure of the institution due to not wanting to pass the full amount of cuts onto its students.

“I know that’s something that we talked about as a worst case scenario: if we made no changes to operations, that students would see a really enormous impact in the tuition and fees,” Riley said. “And yet, we also know who we serve.”

“Our students, half of them are on [federal] Pell Grants where they don’t have any expected family contribution, or very minimal contribution from family members. More than half are first-generation college students. We don’t see that the demographics of our students will change dramatically, in which case we know that adding $600 per student per semester would really price us outside of the level of affordability for those families. And so, we don’t plan to do that.”

UAFS has already committed to not increasing tuition and fees for the 2021-22 school year, according to Riley.

When asked what changes in the university an outsider might see going forward, Riley said although the subcommittees for the budget council submitted final reports, she had not yet had a chance to review all of them. Therefore, she could not say which recommendations might be accepted.

“We are going to vet those through the community of faculty, staff and students as well before making final decisions, particularly if there are academic programs that are very low in numbers,” Riley said. “You can imagine those would be programs that we’d be looking at and considering a reduction, or some combination of programs.”

Riley said the university sees facilities being “a major concern” as well. It is also currently on a hiring freeze, and while it froze or entirely eliminated a number of positions, it is promoting and hiring certain individuals because it is important to do so.

Mike Barr, board of visitors chairman and co-chairman of Friends of UAFS, a group that launched the All In 4 UAFS campaign to support the tax extension, agreed with the decision not to pursue a special election. Barr said there were many reasons for the outcome in November.

“Certainly the [covid-19] pandemic elements of what the chancellor referred to in terms of uncertainty for people, but also just uncertainty in general around our ability to reach people, to reach the right population of people with our messages, so it proved to be a lot more challenging than we originally intended,” Barr said.

“Ultimately, as it turns out, it looks like we’re not going to be clear of the pandemic before we can even have a special election anyway, so I’m not sure that really changes that much in terms of uncertainty and what the people of Sebastian County are feeling. So I’m not sure that there’s really any other options for us. … You can certainly talk about the large turnout of the general election, and maybe that had an impact, but at the same time, the results were clear.”

Official results of the election show that the proposed tax extension received 26,201 negative votes against 20,233 positive votes.

The 0.25% tax is part of the 1.25% Sebastian County sales tax, which is included in Fort Smith’s current tax rate, according to the city’s finance department. The total rate is 9.75% when the 6.5% Arkansas and 2% city sales taxes are taken into account.

Fort Smith attorney Joey McCutchen, chairman of the Citizens Against Unfair Taxes, a group that opposed the tax extension, said on Wednesday that he thinks the university’s decision should be permanent, and that UAFS should “move on.”

“The voters have loudly and clearly spoken, and it was during the general election, where there was a very, very high percentage of voting in Sebastian County, as well as across the state,” McCutchen said. “They should move forward. They should do like all citizens are doing: tighten their budget, readjust their budget and move forward as was the promise 19 or so years ago. This was always meant to be a temporary tax. Sebastian County taxpayers have done more than their fair share, and it’s time for UAFS to move on and find other sources of revenue.”