'It's a good day': After Fort Smith passes sales taxes, how will it be spent?

Fort Smith voters chose to support the fire department, the parks department, police and consent decree projects through two continued sales taxes.

The tax extension that will fund police raises and the consent decree projects passed with 6,009 votes, or 56.73%,  with 4,583 voting no, or 43.27%

The tax that will fund the fire department and parks department passed with 6,929 votes, or 66.60%. There were 3,475 no votes, or 33.40%.

100% of the county precincts have been counted by the Sebastian County Election Board.

Officials have planned that the tax that will support the Fort Smith Police Department will go toward raises for officers.

Police Chief Danny Baker proposed that his officers receive an about 24% raise, bumping entry-level officer pay up to about $50,000. Entry-level officers now earn about $40,000.

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Of the taxes that voters considered, the first goes toward parks capital improvement projects and the Fort Smith Fire Department. The extension is one-fourth of a 1% tax. Half of the tax goes to the fire department and half goes to parks and recreation capital improvement projects.

The second will go toward the Fort Smith Police Department and consent decree projects. The extension is three-fourths of a 1% tax, and 83% of the collections will be used for consent decree purposes, and 17% will be collected for the police department. This tax was previously used to pay off city bonds.

“It’s a good day in Fort Smith," Director Kevin Settle said.

Because of the passed taxes, the city has a clear way to fund parks projects, the fire department, the police department and consent decree projects, Settle said.

“The city of Fort Smith is going to be in a good financial position for the future," Director Lavon Morton said.

At the Elm Grove Community Center precinct at Martin Luther King Jr. Park in north Fort Smith Tuesday morning, precinct judge Fred Beckman said the number of voters started to pick up by 8 a.m.

"We've had a couple of weeks of early voting that ended yesterday," Beckman said. He said there are several key races that "are important to people," Tuesday.

There were five voters who cast ballots as Beckman spoke. He said there had been 241 early voters at the precinct.

Rain was in the forecast for the early afternoon Tuesday in Fort Smith, but weather did not affect the morning turnout.

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"It's a pretty good-size ballot for today's election," Beckman said.

Betty Beckman, Debby Thomas and Charlene Massey worked as volunteers officials at the Elm Grove location Tuesday.

Thomas said, "Everything is going great. We're happy to have such patient voters."

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Fort Smith Primary Election 2022: Sales taxes pass