Baxter County officials have a plan to address what Judge Mickey Pendergrass has called a “glitch” with the recently passed sales tax initiatives for funding expansion and operation of the county jail.The plan will be presented in two ordinances when the Baxter County Quorum Court meets on October 3.
An alternate tax collection schedule was needed after the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration notified county officials collection of a sales tax at a local jurisdiction may only begin and end on a calendar quarter. Collection of the new sales taxes was set to begin on March 1 and November 1, 2018. The eight-month one percent tax for construction would have sunsetted on October 31, 2018, with the subsequent one-quarter maintenance and operation tax ongoing. Under the proposed new plan, the collection period for the one percent sales tax will be shortened to six months, starting one month later than the original plan and ending one month earlier.
Judge Pendergrass says the new plan has the blessing of DF&A and legal guidance at both the local and state level.
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Judge Pendergrass says officials will not know the full financial impact of the change until the project for the jail expansion goes to bid.
He says the biggest challenge in the development of an alternate plan was to ensure it would accomplish what voters had overwhelmingly approved in the special election.
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Judge Pendergrass says between anticipated growth in collections and utilizing funding from both sales tax initiatives, officials are hopeful to complete the construction plan as originally presented. He says the original ordinances had been written to allow the county to save any excess revenues needed beyond maintenance and operation of the jail for any future expansion. Now that the county will receive less revenue from the one cent collected sales tax for construction, the one quarter proceeds may be needed on the front end to complete payment of the expansion.
He says the track record of the construction manager and the architectural firm is another positive factor.
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Judge Pendergrass says stretching dollars is not new for the county. He says the plan for the expansion of the detention center is one officials developed to meet the needs of the county for the next 20-25 years.
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