Searcy Mayor, White County Judge Support Highway* Tax Hike – Update
Searcy Mayor David Morris & White County Judge Mike Lincoln apparently both stated in the local paper a few months ago that they support Issue 1 or the ‘Highway Tax’* that will be on the ballot in November. The half cent tax* increase was referred to voters by the state legislature during last year’s regular session. A tax on fuel…what a great idea! A tax hike on everything? What a great idea!*
Morris reportedly said that street improvements are his ‘biggest concern’ and said the additional revenue that the city would receive as turnback would be ‘welcomed.’
I find this particularly interesting, given that Searcy voters approved a 1% tax increase in December 2011, specifically for road improvements, and the mayor did publicly & privately promise not to call for any further tax increases until this new tax expires. The tax went into effect on April 1 of this year.
Then we have Mike “Never-met-a-tax-I-didn’t-like” Lincoln who told the paper that we “desperately needs additional funds for highways.” Lincoln also said, “if we want improvements, we are going to have to pay for them.”
This is a line he used repeatedly during his campaign to raise taxes on White County taxpayers by 1% last September. The implication behind this comment is sincerely insulting to the people of White County. Of course, if we want to improve our infrastructure, we will have to pay for it. But ‘paying for it’ and raising taxes to pay for it are two entirely different things, Judge Lincoln.
Voters should also remember that the judge cut $1.5 million from this year’s county road budget, while the county sits on millions of dollars in CDs and other accounts. He uses many straw-man arguments like, “Well, we don’t have enough money in the road fund,” leading voters to believe that only money in the road fund can be used for infrastructure improvements, but this is simply not true.
The fact is: White County government, during Judge Lincoln’s time in office, has enjoyed its highest revenues in history. Our problems in White County do not originate from a lack of revenue. They stem from a lack of leadership.
UPDATE: A delightful Lincoln supporter & serial commenter on this blog has said that the diesel tax will no longer be on the Arkansas ballot in 2012. I have read some discussion in the news about this, but I have not seen anything definitive. Many sites are still reporting that the issue will be on the ballot, including Ballotpedia (whom I cited earlier in this post). They have the ballot question’s status listed as “on the ballot.” TaxRates.com reported on the vote just over a week ago, citing a poll that was conducted on the issue in late March of this year.
I am looking into this and will keep you posted. Whether or not the issue will be on the ballot this year is immaterial to my point in this article. Judge Lincoln wants higher taxes, despite county revenues being higher than ever. And this point is not dependent upon this particular tax issue. He has supported multiple other taxes during his time in office, and I will be outlining those as well.
*This part of the story was edited for clarification.
Politicians love taxes!!! Money is like meth to our politicians! They can never get enough!!
What ever happen to ,”We the people!”.
My question to these politicians is there anything in your budget that you can cut?
I have never seem anything get cut. Can somebody tell me what is wrong with cutting back on the size of Government? We need smaller government and less taxes!
We need to grow freedom!
The diesel tax is not even going to be on the ballot anymore. Please check your facts.
If you’re going to accuse people of lying, you should try to document your claims. See the update to this post for further comment.
Thank you very much for the update, and this serial commenter is truly honored for the mention!
And Nic I don’t think you are lying, it just seems you suck at gathering/reporting actual facts. A simple phone call to the governors office or to one of our local representatives would quickly clear this up. I could Google their phone numbers for you if you would like?
Jake, you still have not provided one shred of evidence that I am mistaken on these facts. And let me remind you that is the paper that originally reported this story. Perhaps you should direct your anger towards them–or does that not fit your agenda?
I’m not going to permit you to make baseless attacks against members of this blog. Provide some evidence or stop commenting. I will delete any future smearing comments that are not based in fact.
If you are going to delete comments based on facts with no supporting evidence then you should do some house cleaning of you own articles, seeing as how you hardly ever site anything you write. Practice what you preach. And there is no anger nor agenda, I simply point out an erroneous fact in your article, as I said make a quick call to the the rep to clear it up, it’s not that hard.
I think we’re done here. You clearly have no facts to support your claims. Good luck.
Likewise my friend!
I just stumbled upon this blog today and thought I might finally find some relevant info better than the Citizen, but the above quote made me wonder.
Ballotpedia? TaxHikes.com?
“I will delete any future smearing comments that are not based in fact.”
Yikes!
Ballotpedia is a fairly respected site. SOS office has referenced it as well.
TaxHikes.com wasn’t cited.
And that quote was to a specific reader regarding specific smears. But for what it’s worth, Tom asked a question, he didn’t level an accusation.
Thanks for reading! NHH
From what the Secretary of State’s office says, Issue One will be on the ballot. Issue One is not the 5 cent diesel tax though. Beebe pulled that. It is a half cent sales tax that I believe all or most of our Republican senators/representatives from White County are supporting. If that is the case, Nic, and you are still against that tax, will call those elected officials out too? I haven’t looked any further into the tax than that. Not sure what it is for. Please let us know if you can confirm this and what your position on it is. Thanks!
You are correct that Issue 1 is not the diesel tax. I am working on a follow-up. However, the tax that is on the ballot is the severance tax and it is opposed by all local officials in White County as far as I know. If you can find someone who is supporting it, yes, I would be happy to call them out.
Or are you talking about the highway tax?
Sounds fair enough. I may have misunderstood. If it is indeed the severance tax, then you are correct, I know of zero WC officials supporting it either. I thought it was something different though. Thanks for working to clarify this!
I am curious as to what all responsibilities the county judge has. If it is just tending to the county’s roads then judge Lincoln has failed miserably. The roads in my area are in almost un-drivable condition, thanks to all the gas trucks. I am curious as to whether the gas companies have to reimburse the county for destroying our roads?
Mr. McCain, Roads and county property should be the main part of the judges job. I feel the county judge should first listen and then act when a road complaint is filed. We need to do a lot more repairing of the roads we have and not taking in more substandard roads that are going to cost more money to repair and setup. We need to invest in what we have. Feel free to call me anytime if I can help you in any way.
Bill Haynie
501-305-2030
So, last year the Arkansas Legislature passed a law referring a 5 cent per gallon diesel tax to the voters in November 2012 and Beebe followed the process of issuing a proclamation for the election on this issue and now it’s just not going to be voted on? That’s even more disturbing. http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Arkansas_Diesel_Tax_Increase_Question_(2011)