A voting machine used in Emmet City Hall last year. Today's election involves millages for school funding in Hope and Nevada School Districts as well as a one cent sales tax in Prescott.
Three important votes today in Hempstead and Nevada counties will decide school millages and a debt service method for Prescott.
The two millage increases have been requested by the Hope School District and the Nevada School District to help finance facility upgrades and maintain faculty and staffing levels in an environment in which both districts are having to compete with better funded districts in the region for personnel. The city of Prescott is calling for a one cent per dollar sales tax increase to fund the paying of the city’s $2.4 million electric bill incurred for electricity bought during the February 2021 winter storm.
The results of the election of August 8th will determine whether the millage charge for citizens with property living within the bounds of the Hope school district will move up 12 mills, from 34.7 to 46.7. This would mean property taxes for those under 65 and not declared disabled would move up $10 monthly for a property whose market value is $50,000 and whose assessed value is $10,000. HPS’ current millage rate is lower than that of the Fouke, Jacksonville, Magnet Cove, Genoa Central, Spring Hill and Prescott school districts. It ranks 200th out of 225 Arkansas school districts.
The funding from the millage would go toward upgrades to every Hope Public Schools campus—including matching state funds for improvement of Hope High School’s Agri building and major renovations of the Yerger Middle School gym and campus infrastructure–and to help raise pay for teachers and staff not included in the raises provided by the LEARNS Act. The millage for Hope Public Schools has not been raised in 35 years.
This past Friday, HPS released a video in which Hope High School’s Agricultural Education teacher Christina Smith said the millage would allow much needed repairs to a building that has a leaky roof and side door as well as help build a barn to house animals. She said that with Agricultural and Mechanical-oriented professions in high demand and many Arkansas agribusiness companies hoping to hire, upgrades to what her department can offer are especially needed.
The Nevada School District millage would raise the millage from 34.8 to 44.8, with the proceeds being used to retain faculty and staff as well as pay maintenance and operating costs that have risen a great deal in the last three years Superintendent Roy McCoy, after giving an information session at a public meeting last month, described the millage’s importance and alluded to the many years since it was raised: “It’s the light bill. It’s salaries. Our millage is the same as it was in 1985, and I asked the crowd how many of you have been at your job ten years, 20 years, 30 years. Have you done it without a pay raise? In 1985, a gallon of gas was 79 cents. … It’s time to ask the boss for a raise.”
The one cent increase per retail dollar spent requested of the citizens of Prescott is portrayed by its supporters as a way for citizens to save money that would otherwise be passed down to their Prescott Water and Light Bills over a five-year period. Rather than shoulder the whole cost of paying the debt on household electric bills for the extra energy PW&L had to purchase, the cost would be shared between citizens and the payers of the one cent sales tax on retail goods, much of which would be paid by non-citizens of Prescott shopping in the town.