Fort Smith special, general elections produce similar tax-support outcomes

Recent municipal election history appears to refute renewed claims that a special election produces different outcomes than a similar item on a general election ballot.

The disclosure was part of a July 22 memo from Deputy City Administrator Ray Gosack that is part of a packet for the July 27 board of directors study session.

“There’s recently been comments that holding an election for a prepared food tax next spring in a special election rather than this fall in the General Election is being done to improve the chances of the tax’s passage. Local election experience shows that a special election doesn’t make a difference in the election outcome,” Gosack noted in the memo.

The Fort Smith board of directors have indicated a tentative plan to ask Fort Smith voters in spring 2011 to support a 1% prepared food tax to fund a shortfall of between $750,000 and $1 million to operate the Fort Smith Convention Center. The board spent more than 18 months trying to come up with a solution to plug the annual deficit. A state turnback program ends in June 2010 from which the city has received about $1.8 million a year. In 2010 the city will receive only $888,723 in 2010.

Gosack’s research provides a decent case study in that it compares a November 2002 general election and a May 2003 special election on the same subject — continuance of the countywide 1% sales tax.

In 2002, Oscar Stilley — now in a federal prison for violation of tax evasion related charges — pushed a citizen initiative to seek abolishment of the 1% countywide tax. Of the 32,037 Fort Smith citizens who voted in the 2002 general election, 20,297 (63.35%) voted to keep the sales tax.

Fast forward less than seven months and the countywide sales tax came back to voters for renewal in May 2003. Like the 1% street tax, the 1% county tax sunsets every 10 years, which affords voters the opportunity to renew or end the tax. In the May 2003 election, 7,316 votes were cast, with 4,651 (63.57%) voting to continue the tax.

“Although voter turnout for the special election was considerably less than the General Election, the outcomes were nearly identical,” Gosack noted in the memo.

The other criticism of having a special election is the cost. A special election costs about $25,000, whereas the city pays about $21,000 for a general election ballot. Gosack told The City Wire he thinks the difference is worth giving voters until spring 2011 to review the prepared food tax issue.

“Allowing enough time for citizen education more than outweighs the $4,000 expense,” Gosack explained. “We saw in 2006 what happened when we rushed projects through that the voters were not familiar with.”

Gosack referred to the 2006 ballot defeat of a plan to build a youth sports complex and a separate plan to build a city hall. The other two items on the ballot — upgrade to communications equipment for local emergency service providers, and extensive work on the city’s water and sewer system — were approved by voters.

Gosack said the need for communication upgrade and sewer system upgrades “were a known quantity for a long time” and were not complex or controversial matters like the sports complex and city hall.