Official: Sales tax extension means continued progress

FORT SMITH — About 75% of the voters in Sebastian County’s special election Tuesday supported continuing the county’s 1% sales and use tax for another 10 years.

A total of 3,313 votes were cast in the election, according to unofficial results from the Sebastian County website.

The unofficial results as of Wednesday morning were: For 2,494 (75%) Against 819 (25%)

Sebastian County has 72,446 registered, eligible voters, according to the County Clerk’s Office.

Meghan Hassler, county election coordinator, said Wednesday the election results will “hopefully” be certified Monday.

County Judge Steve Hotz on Wednesday thanked the residents who supported the sales tax. He said the extension will allow the county to continue moving forward.

“With an overwhelming vote of support, the citizens are saying they want to keep progress moving forward in the River Valley,” Hotz said. “Many good things are happening in the county, and this will certainly help us maintain the pace.”

County residents voted to implement the 1% tax for the first time in 1994. With Tuesday’s vote, they have now renewed the tax three times for a decade each.

Hotz said in April the tax would sunset in June 2024 if voters didn’t approve extending it. Sebastian County received more than $4.8 million of the more than $33.7 million total the tax generated in 2022. The rest was divided between the county’s 11 cities and incorporated towns. The size of the allocations is based on population.

Hotz has said the county would have had to curtail services if the tax wasn’t continued. The tax is also a significant income source for the county’s smaller municipalities, such as Bonanza, Mansfield and Midland, he said.

The county’s share of the revenue will be committed as follows per a resolution the Sebastian County Quorum Court approved April 18:

• Operation of the county jail: 54.5%

• Operation of the county Juvenile Detention Center: 9%

• Support of three Sheriff’s Office patrol deputies for unincorporated areas of the county: 9%

• Capital projects: 11%

• Improving county volunteer rural fire departments: 5%

• Sebastian County Emergency Medical Services: 2%

• Improving services provided by the senior citizen centers the county supports: 1%

• Improving the programs of the Scott-Sebastian Regional Library, including building expansion as necessary: 0.5%

• County employee health care and workers’ compensation: 7%

• Operation of county parks: 1%

(River Valley Democrat-Gazette/Caleb Grieger) Mickie Matthews sets out “I voted” stickers for voters to take Tuesday at the Creekmore Park Community Center in Fort Smith. The center was one of the polling locations for the Sebastian County sales tax election on whether the county would continue to levy a 1% sales tax for the next decade. The measure passed. Visit nwaonline.com/photo for today’s photo gallery.