By JOAN McCOY
Leader staff writer
White County voters have said no to a sales tax to help build a bypass around Searcy.
The vote on Tuesday for a one-cent tax to be collected for 21 months was 3,248 against and 2,477 for.
Promoters of the tax said the state wanted a $6 million match before it would give $54 million in federal money to build the bypass that would have started at Highway 13 in McRae, continued north across Beebe Capps Expressway and then turn east to Judsonia. Revenue from the sales tax would have helped pay for the section that runs east to west into Judsonia.
The White County Quorum Court agreed to set aside $1 million a year for three years to pay half the match with the stipulation that the sales tax Searcy would need to pay the other $3 million was countywide so the entire county could benefit from the revenue.
White County Judge Michael Lincoln said in a phone interview after the tax failed on Tuesday that he believes the county will set aside its part as intended and that Searcy will try for a one-cent city sales tax to raise money for its part. In Searcy, 55 percent of those who voted on Tuesday were for the tax so the odds of it passing are good, Lincoln said.
The bypass was originally intended to be built in three sections. The first section from Highway 13 at McRae to Honey Hill Road is still scheduled for construction beginning in September 2012, said Glenn Bolick, spokesman for the highway department.
The second and third sections, the part that the highway department considers the bypass, are not scheduled, but Bolick said they will eventually be built regardless of whether White County or Searcy comes up with money to help pay for the east to west section.
“We don’t have a set date for this to happen,” he said. “As money becomes available and we get the time, we’ll get it done.”
Bolick said if the tax had passed or if Searcy passes a tax to help pay for the bypass it will be built sooner than if the state has to pay for the whole project.
As for the $54 million in federal money available but in need of a $6 million match, Bolick said that number was confusing. The two parts of the project that aren’t already scheduled are estimated at $35 to $40 million. But since the route it will take hasn’t been decided and environmental studies haven’t been completed, there is no definite cost.
A public meeting will be held from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Searcy High School cafeteria so the public can have input about the location of the bypass.
Lincoln said the proposal to build the bypass as one project instead of three originated with then Commissioner Cliff Hoofman and Director Dan Flowers. Neither is associated with the highway department now.
Bolick said projects that have local funding in addition to state funding are usually built before those without it.
The White County Quorum Court voted in April to help fund the project, Lincoln said.
The countywide tax would have raised about $18 million. Of that amount, $3 million was to have gone toward the $6 million match needed to have the project built in one phase instead of three.
Beebe would have received about $1.7 million for its streets. Mayor Mike Robertson said this week that the tax revenue would have paid for paving that the city could not afford otherwise.
The county would have received $8.3 million for county roads.
