Fayetteville sales tax is currently 9.75%. That’s the combined state, county and city taxes. Our hotel, motel, restaurant tax is 11.57%. My property taxes in 2008, the year I helped with Lioneld Jordan’s first successful mayoral race, were $1,367.74. My property taxes in 2020 are $2,034.00.
The pandemic is going to make it critical that we get the highest and best use of the budget given city staff. Last fall in a letter to the editor (Arkansas Democrat Gazette) Dick Vertz wrote, “it’s time for the money grab and social engineering scheme to end. To the City Council: Stop the compaction of housing and get out of our pockets. This is neither the Fayetteville I once knew nor the one I want it to become.”
Mr. Vertz was referring to a postcard he had received from the city outlining their proposal for “avoiding future drainage issues” and for “sustainable funding for stormwater management.” He was speaking to water run off problems that result when additional hard surfaces are created by infill which covers up green spaces with concrete. The word smithing on the post card got my attention. I’ve noticed word smithing used by City staff in my area of interest, garbage and recycling.
It seems Mr. Vertz was particularly annoyed because of “the very direct role played by the City Council in creating the problem.” He refers to allowing the building of 3,000 square foot houses on quarter acre lots or even smaller lots, thus reducing green spaces and places for the water to be absorbed.
I don’t know anything about storm water run off, but I do know about recycling and I think our tax dollars can be used more efficiently within the recycling and garbage department. My main concern at this point is accountability and transparency.
The pilot single stream project, that coincidentally ran during 2016 (an election year), was not transparent. We were not allowed to see the contents collected, but I did get word that some recycling loads were so filthy that there were rats jumping from the single stream trucks. There should have been real time camera coverage of the trucks dumping their recycling loads.
Hopefully the 2021 Fayetteville City Council will ask more questions of staff, require more thorough answers, and will do less rubber stamping, and save us taxpayers hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars.