Court Revives Voluntary Tax for Soil Conservation District
During the 2018 budget deliberations, the 1-mill voluntary tax for the Soil Conservation District was abolished and replaced with a 1-mill voluntary tax for the Extension Service.
But the Soil Conservation governing Board was never notified, which created a funding crisis in late 2019 when they did not receive about $70,000 in expected revenue from the dedicated tax.
To address the situation, at its February 18 meeting the Quorum Court approved Ordinance 20-06 that revived the voluntary Soil Conservation tax. The 1-mill voluntary tax for the Extension Service remains.
At the Quorum Court meeting, Judge Baker recognized JP Tyler Pearson (D, Dist. 7), the Ordinance’s sponsor, who gave an overview of the Soil Conservation District and its activities.
(Edited from full video on Faulkner County Arkansas Facebook page.)
He explained that the loss of 70% of their funding, as the Budget & Finance Committee learned about last week, had “blown a hole” in their operating budget. He asked the Court to approve Ordinance 20-06 re-instating the voluntary tax.
JP Rose Roland (JP, Dist. 5) was concerned about the “lack of discussion back in 2018 when this was changed” and said she’d listened to the audio tape from the December, 2018 Quorum Court meeting when Ordinance 18-33 abolished the tax (as did several other JPs).
A 2014 newspaper article said the tax had been used as security to build the Natural Resources building; Roland questioned “what happened” to the tax when the building was sold.
Goode moved to strike Article 4 in the proposed Ordinance, which would delete the voluntary Extension Service tax enacted in December, 2018. In a unanimous voice vote the Court agreed.
Baker explained the action in December, 2018 was driven by a concern that “County General was supporting the Extension Service” so “we should include a voluntary tax” to lessen the budgetary impact on the County General fund. Pearson added there was “a misperception about this voluntary tax being solely used for this building that is no longer in existence.”
When JP Kris Kendrick (R, Dist. 9) asked whether any JPs could discuss the December, 2018 decision to abolish the tax in more detail, the meeting seemed to erupt with several individuals talking at once.
Waving his arms, Baker exclaimed
I’ll take full responsibility right here tonight! It went away because of me. I mean, I’ll take full responsibility; I’d like to see it rectified and put back on there!
Goode explained,
The reality is, we have very limited time, we have one meeting a month, most months.
We have limited time. We can’t communicate outside here, it’s against the law. So typically when we show up here, you know, something’s presented that is needed….
And I think the real error there that night was probably the lack of realization that we’d already collected the tax for one entity that we were going to turn around and give to another entity.
That should have set off red flags…. It didn’t. It didn’t with me…. But the presentation was that, because the building had gone away, the tax was no longer needed.
Goode called for the vote and the Court voted 12 to 1 to pass Ordinance 20-06, as amended. Kendrick voted “no.”
Afterward, County Attorney Phil Murphy said the Ordinance means the Soil Conservation District must submit an annual budget to the County just like other parts of County government, so the Court can exercise its authority to appropriate the collected revenue. He commented that, even though the first voluntary tax had existed for years, budgets had apparently not been submitted in the past.
The new Soil Conservation District voluntary tax will appear on the 2020 tax bills, Pearson added.
