Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Residents Favor Bond Issue

Nevada County residents voted overwhelmingly to get the interstates repaired quickly.

In Tuesday's special election, held June 15, only a scant 8 percent of registered voters in the county bothered to cast their ballot, but, of these, 368 voted for the bond issue, with 77 being opposed to it. This amounts to an 83 percent to 17 percent victory.

Statewide, the vote was similar, as the issue won 4-1.

Local boxes show early voting with 33 for and 5 against; absentee voting was a washout with 23 for and none against.

In Prescott, with voting at the Nevada County Courthouse, the results were 219 for and 41 against.

Voting in Rosston was held at the Nevada School, with 53 voting for the bond issue and 29 opposed to it.

In Emmet, 41 favored it, with 2 voting against it.

With the issue being approved, bonds totaling $575 million will be sold to repair 372 miles of Arkansas interstate highways.

This was the first time in 50 years Arkansas voters approved going into debt for highway repair. The state could be in debt for the bonds as long as 12 years, after the bonds are officially sold. This likely won't happen before the end of this year.

During the past 50 years, the state has had to do highway repair on the pay-as-you-go method. If there was a shortfall, some roads didn't get fixed.

But, in 1949, Gov. Sid McMath managed to get a $28 million bond issue passed, by, believe it or not , a 4-1 margin, with those bonds being paid off in 1960.

Since 1972, the state's highway program has been debt-free, when bonds predating the '49 bonds were retired.

The election was a major victory for Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who originally proposed the idea, nursed it through the legislature and headed the $300,000 campaign.

The issue depends heavily on federal funds the state expects to receive for interstate highway repair. Arkansas expects to get $239 million from the federal Highway Administration in interstate maintenance funds though the year 2003. These monies will be used to help retire the bonded indebtedness incurred by Tuesday's election.

In addition, a portion of the 4 cent diesel fuel tax the legislature approved during the recent General Assembly, will be used to help retired the debt.