Pocahontas voters to see sales tax restructuring on August ballot

POCAHONTAS, Ark. (KAIT) - Residents in one Randolph County city will head to the ballot box to vote on a restructured sales tax.

Voters approved a half-cent sales tax around seven years ago to build the city’s aquatic center.

With it nearly being paid off, the city wants to continue the sales tax to fund a different project.

Pocahontas Mayor Keith Sutton explained many city streets are in fair to poor condition, and devoting the sales tax to the city street department would allow the city to improve many streets in a short time.

“This will allow us to have the funds to bring a high percentage of our city streets up to par,” Mayor Sutton said.

Residents who vote yes to the restructuring will not be raising the half-cent sales tax but extending how long the existing sales tax is collected.

The money won’t only be used to fix city streets but also traffic lights across town that are city-owned that are becoming dated.

“We’ve been maintaining them as good as we can, but people don’t understand when ArDOT put those in after they’re installed and working properly, they turn that over to the city,” the mayor explained.

Pocahontas Resident Misti Stowers said she’d be glad to see the improvements to the city streets.

“We definitely need the money for our city streets, our infrastructure, our bridges, to bring additional business here,” Stowers said. “We always need improvement. There’s always a need for improvement in our town.”

Stowers plans to vote for the sales tax when it appears on the ballot in August.

“It’s just half a percent, so I’m going to be voting for it. I won’t miss the money. Most everyone will not miss that money because it’s so minute and it’s so little,” she added.

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