Community center, public safety focus of Van Buren sales tax proposal

Van Buren voters are headed to the polls to decide on whether to fund major capital projects with proposed 0.5% sales tax. Election day is March 3, but early voting began Feb. 17. Van Buren Mayor Joe Hurst is asking residents to vote for the tax plan.

If voters approve, revenue from the tax will support capital projects for parks and recreation, including a new community center and a new fire department.

“For decades, Van Buren citizens and community leaders have discussed the possibility of building a community center,” Hurst said. “As plans throughout the years never came to fruition, the community center idea has just remained a dream. But I’m hopeful now, more than ever, that this is our best chance yet to make that community center dream a reality.”

The city collected information from years of community meetings, surveys and citizen feedback and determined that citizens want improvements that could be funded by the sales tax, including public spaces for swimming, basketball, volleyball and pickleball.

“In addition, public safety and the safety of those who protect us must remain a top priority,” Hurst said. “To that end, the time is also now to build a new fire station to replace station No. 3 (at 2821 Bryan Road). Our firemen are second to none, and they need a modern station to help support public safety efforts. The March 3 ballot addresses this need as well.”

The 0.5% city sales tax would fund approximately $36.8 million in parks and recreational improvements with a new community center, and $8.2 million for a new fire station and equipment.

If approved, Van Buren’s permanent city sales tax will be 2 cents, the same amount as nearly every city in the area, Hurst said. Fort Smith, Greenwood, Ozark, Rogers, Bentonville, Siloam Springs, Fayetteville, Springdale, Searcy and Sherwood all have a 2-cent city sales tax. In Crawford County, Alma and Mulberry have a 2-cent sales tax. Mountainburg has a 2.5-cent sales tax. Van Buren has a 1.5-cent sales tax.

In 2025, The city sales tax brought in $8.734 million, up 0.5% from the $8.687 million in 2024. The city’s portion of the Crawford County sales tax accounted for $4.3 million in revenue, up 28% from the $3.344 million in 2024. That total was lower in 2024 due to a loss of county sales tax revenue from a county error in tax collection for the first of the year.

In 2025, sales tax revenues funded the Interstate 40/Highway 59 interchange project, which began in October 2025 and is scheduled to be completed in December of this year. It also funded a downtown drainage project, the parks and recreation master plan update that was completed in 2025, a new chamber of commerce business resource center that opened last year, multiple street overlay and drainage projects, and four new pedestrian crossing signals around schools, Hurst said.

The downtown drainage project was partially funded by an approximate $1 million federal grant. It started in 2025 and is scheduled for completion early this year.

“It’s one penny for our future, and the time to invest in our future is now,” Hurst said.

There is no known organized opposition to the sales tax proposal.