1% signature deadline extended, 4,000 signatures expected

The group of restaurant owners attempting to force an election on enactment of a 1% prepared food tax in Fort Smith have about 3,000 signatures collected and hope to have about 4,000 by Saturday’s deadline.

The tax was enacted by the Fort Smith Board of Directors to resolve a more than 10-year search to plug an annual deficit predicted to occur when state turnback money dried up. The state turnback program ended for Fort Smith in June 2010 from which the city received about $1.8 million a year. In 2010, the city received only $888,723. A fund balance will allow the city to cover the convention center shortfall for most of 2011.

Barring a successful citizen-initiated referendum, the tax will go into effect June 1.

Eddie York, owner of Art’s BBQ in Fort Smith and the organizer of the signature-collection effort, said as of Monday he had collected about 1,500 signatures at his restaurant. He believes the final signature tally from all participating restaurants will be around 4,000 — down from the 5,000 they had hoped to gather.

“We feel like we have a few more than 3,000 signatures now, and by Friday we’ll have more than that. … We’re hoping to have 4,000 by the time we turn these in on Saturday,” York said.

The effort needs 2,822 valid signatures (registered voters in Fort Smith) to push the 1% tax to a public vote.

City officials initially set the deadline for signatures at 5 p.m., Mar. 25. However, York said complaints were made that Mar. 26 represented the 30 days allowed and therefore the deadline should be Monday (Mar. 28).

In response, Assistant City Attorney Rick Wade updated the end of the 30 days to be 5 p.m., Saturday (Mar. 26) instead of the same time on Friday. To make allowance for the new deadline, the city clerk’s office will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday (Mar. 26).

“They are putting the screws to us,” York said of having a Saturday deadline instead of the Monday deadline. “A good lawyer could have had it thrown, but we’re not going to fight it.”

York said they will collect signatures up until the time they have to gather the petition forms and get them to the clerk’s office before the 5 p.m. deadline.

Little money has been spent on the signature drive, but York said people are ready to support the campaign once the 1% tax gets on the ballot.

“We’ve really just spent time (on the signature collection), we haven’t spent much money. But we do have a lot of people ready to pony up some money to do some advertising when we get this on the ballot,” York said.