Voters statewide have many decisions to make on Election Day, November 8, or during the early voting period before it.
Election Day will be here before you know it. The votes cover many areas between every office filled and statewide issues such as recreational marijuana and three bad constitutional amendments (issues 1, 2 and 3).
However, Benton and Washington counties have separate county-level issues that rank among the most important and serious votes cast by local voters. Both counties are asking voters to approve county jail expansions. The proposals are wildly different, but both counties would raise sales taxes to pay for construction.
If voters approve, Washington County sales tax will temporarily increase by a quarter of a cent. Temporary, however, is a number until enough funds are raised to pay for his proposed $113.5 million prison expansion and his $28.5 million upgrade to juvenile detention facilities. means year.
In Benton County, authorities are demanding a temporary 1/8-cent sales tax to build a $206 million prison expansion. They also asked voters for a permanent quarter-cent sales tax to fund the operation and maintenance of larger prisons and other law enforcement needs.
Officials from both counties recently appeared on the My Arkansas Story podcast to discuss their proposals and why they believe they are a project critical to public safety and quality of life in northwestern Arkansas. Did.
I also recorded a podcast with the Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition that opposes prison expansion and urges county leaders to pursue other avenues of criminal justice that don’t involve building large prisons.
Please listen to them all if you have the chance. You can find them on the other Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette podcasts (https://www.nwaonline.com/podcast). Alternatively, you can search for “Speaking of Arkansas” in your favorite podcasting app like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher. .
Supporters and opponents of these projects have done a lot of work to articulate the reasons for their positions. is the best method for
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Deakins Appears
Last Sunday, I complained about the tendency of many Republicans in recent years to avoid attending candidate forums where they sit side by side with their opponents and take questions from voters. I referred to her October 10th forum of the League of Women Voters in Washington County at the Fayetteville Public Library to state all how every Republican in the relevant constituency has not shown. I was.
Last Thursday, the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce held several election forums, including one for a county judge. I completely missed that event was going on, but here’s a point worth mentioning. Republican Patrick Deakins showed up and joined Democrat Josh Moody fully in the race.
Deakins said I missed the League of Women Voters event by calling his name unfairly because he thought it was a false assumption. Efforts were made to have pre-scheduled discussions with volunteers and to notify the forum organizers of the dispute as soon as possible.
He’s right I mentioned him in the list of all the Republicans who didn’t show up that night.
While the column’s overall assertion remains the same, Deakins acknowledges that he attended a Chamber of Commerce event later this week. Moody deserves credit for being available to voters as well. I’m sorry I couldn’t attend Thursday’s event, but I’m glad the Fayetteville Public Library documented it in her YouTube video.
