Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Mayor questions proposed 1 cent tax

Gurdon Mayor Clayton Franklin said he cannot support the sales tax initiative proposed by the Clark County Quorum Court recently unless changes are made to the proposal.

The proposed one cent sales tax is scheduled to go before Clark County voters on Feb. 13. If it is approved it will be split three ways: = cent will fund jail construction; 1/4 cent will be used for economic development; and the remaining 1/4 cent would be divided among the cities within the county. Approximately $89,497 annually would come to Gurdon.

Although Franklin agrees that all of the items included in the initiative need additional funding, he said he has two major reservations about the proposal.

The first of Franklins reservation is that the quorum courts proposal is different from the proposal put together by the Clark County Intergovernmental Council - a group consisting of County Judge Ron Daniell and the mayors of all Clark County cities - earlier this year. In July, the council voted 4-3, with one mayor absent from the meeting, to support a one cent county-wide sales tax which would be divided three ways: 1/4 cent for the construction of a new jail, 1/4 cent for economic development and = cent to be divided among the cities in the county.

The formula proposed by the quorum court earlier this month gives less money to the cities and more to the jail and economic development.

This was not the formula the mayors agreed on, Franklin said. The county made a bigger grab for the proposed money.

Franklin said his other main concern was that the county already takes a full one cent sales tax, and he fears that another one cent county-wide tax will only hurt the small cities that often rely on the ability to pass a sales tax to complete local projects.

Thats the only way the cities have to get more money, he said. If the county starts to take more and more of that, it doesnt leave much for us.

Franklin said the one cent tax could raise the tax base in Gurdon to the point that citizens would not vote for a new tax to fund local projects.

Another concern Franklin voiced was the thought of the citizens of Gurdon approving and then paying a tax which would build a jail that the city would then have to pay to use. Its like building a new house and then renting it to yourself, he said.

Franklin said the city of Gurdon is currently forced to transport inmates to jail in Camden, Texarkana and Fordyce because there is seldom room in the Clark County jail for those arrested by Gurdon police. The cost to the city to house an inmate per day averages $40, plus the cost to transport the person to and from the other jails.

It gets very expensive if youve got three to four people in jail.

Franklin said he would have to see some sort of agreement signed by the county to allow municipalities within the county to house inmates in the county jail at a much reduced or no daily charge before supporting the proposed tax.

Theres a whole lot of questions about this that would have to be answered before I would endorse it.