MP School District seeks millage hike
The Garland County Election Commission drew ballot positions Friday for three contested school board races in the May 18 annual school elections, which will include the 4.8-mill increase the Mountain Pine School District will ask voters to approve.
Thirteen candidates filed for
10 positions ahead of Monday’s filing deadline. Jennifer Dawn Boyette and Sandy Walker filed to serve the final year left on Cutter Morning Star School Board’s Position 2. Suzanne Flannery and incumbent Don Pierce filed for Position 3 on the Jessieville School Board. The winner will serve a five-year term.
Erin Bodemann-McCarly and Thomas Smith filed to serve the five-year term for Position 5 on the Lakeside School Board. The Garland County clerk’s office said Vice President Tylar Tapp is the current seat holder.
Incumbents Donna Fincher, Cutter Morning Star Position 1, Cindy Herring, Fountain Lake Position 1, Lonell Lenox, Hot Springs Position 3, Mark Curry, Lake Hamilton Position 51, Thomas Gould, Mountain Pine Position
4, and Cory Eskew, Jessieville Position 4, are running unopposed. The Jessieville School Board appointed Eskew last year to fill the vacancy left by Kevin Meacham. He’s running in May to serve the final year of Meacham’s five-year term.
Linda McMahan White is running unopposed for the open Position 5 seat on the Hot Springs School Board. State law requires unopposed school board candidates be listed on the ballot.
The county clerk’s office said March 31 is the deadline for candidates to file statements of financial interest that list their sources of income.
The election commission said because Fountain Lake, Hot Springs and Lake Hamilton’s races are uncontested, voting in those districts will be limited to absentee and early voting. Early voting begins May 11.
The election commission will meet March 24 to establish Election Day polling locations for districts with contested races and Mountain Pine, which will ask voters to approve an additional
4.8 mills of property tax. The Garland County Quorum Court in November established a tax rate of 39.90 mills for Mountain Pine during the 2020 tax year.
If voters approve the rate hike, it will go on 2021 taxes due in
2022. The increase would raise the district’s tax rate to 44.70 mills, which would trail Cutter
Morning Star’s 48.90 mills as the second-highest rate in the county. The Magnet Cove School District levies 47.78 mills, but most of its district is in Hot Spring County.
None of the county’s other six districts are asking for millage increases, but the state Constitution requires them to put their tax rates on the ballot during annual school elections. Those millages will be levied, no matter if voters approve or reject them.
The election commission has expressed support for House Joint Resolution 1002, a constitutional amendment the Legislature proposed that would remove school millages from ballots unless the district is asking voters for a rate increase.
Election Commission Chairman Gene Haley said the arcane provision went mostly unnoticed before school districts held annual elections during preferential primaries. Higher turnout made it more noticeable, confusing voters who don’t normally vote in school elections.
“It’s very confusing to people,” Haley said. “They vote no, and it doesn’t make any difference.”
If the Legislature ratifies HJR 1002, it will be one of three legislatively-referred amendments on the ballot in November 2022.
The candidates’ names are listed below as they will appear on the ballot:
Cutter Morning Star Position 1
Donna Fincher
Cutter Morning Star Position 2
Jennifer Dawn Boyette Sandy Walker
Fountain Lake Position 1 Cindy Herring
Hot Springs Position 3 Lonell “Dino” Lenox
Hot Springs Position 5 Linda McMahan White Jessieville Position 3 Suzanne Flannery
Don Pierce
Jessieville Position 4 Cory Eskew
Lake Hamilton Position 51 Robert Mark Curry Lakeside Position 5
Erin Bodemann-McCarley Thomas Smith
Mountain Pine Position 4 Thomas Gould