Harrison Mayoral candidates spar over 2021 sales and use tax vote

Watkins says the city tried to hide the vote, Jackson says they did all they could to inform the public.

This is the first of a series of stories about the Harrison Mayoral election which is on November 8^th. Early voting starts on October 24^th.

Mayor Jerry Jackson and Mayoral Candidate Rhonda Watkins joined KHOZ’s Around the Table program last week to discuss their platform for mayor.

The last time Harrison voted an incumbent mayor into office for a second consecutive term was in 2002 when Bob Reynolds won reelection. Prior to that Bill Greg won back-to-back terms in 1978 and 1982. Danny Harness served two terms but not consecutively as he was first elected in 1986, then was unseated by Greg in 1990 and reelected back to office in 1994. Since then, Pat Moles (2007-2010), Jeff Crockett (2011-2014), and Dan Sherill (2015-2018) have all served only a single term.

When it comes to getting elected to a second consecutive term Jackson says, “It doesn’t seem to be easy. I get that, it’s not easy. It’s not easy being mayor.”

 Jackson and Watkins have differing views on serval issues, one of which is the 2021 special election that created two $0.25 cent sales taxes to build and maintain Creekside Community Center as well as serval other parks upgrades and economic development. In 2019 voters voted down a similar tax that was meant to finance more than $39 million in bonds to build a larger community center facility on Gibson Road. After the election the project was revisited with a survey conducted by the University of Central Arkansas in Conway of the community asking them what they would like to see, and Jackson says the results of the survey lined up with what the city was trying to achieve with the exception of a much lower price.

The city came back in 2021 with a proposal to build a smaller center with approximately $20 million and to put it on the site of the former Harrison Junior High School on South Pine Street which they acquired from the school district for $50,000 and voters passed the resolution.

Watkins thinks the city tried to hide the 2021 election from most of the public so that it would pass. She cites the fact that nearly 1000 less people voted in the 2021 election compared to the 2019 election.

“…a thousand people didn’t go out and vote? So that really makes you think were we really transparent in getting the information out to the people, because they thought it was voted down and then all of the sudden two years later it’s voted in,” Watkins said.

To see the full interview with Rhonda Watkins click here. 

Jackson called the 2021 election a landslide victory and said the people had decided they wanted to see that kind of progress.

As far as the accusation of the city slipping the vote by the public, he said that Dr. Billy Ray Lewis made that same claim at a recent city council meeting and the city prepared a copy of every news report that was done regarding the project.

“We had over a hundred pages from the Harrison Daily Times reporting on Creekside,” he said, “Creekside was here [On Around the Table]. How many times did we talk about Creekside? Every time I was in here, and I’m in here every month.”

To see the full interview with Mayor Jerry Jackson click here.

He also mentioned social media posts and public forums about the project and said, “…if somebody says they didn’t know about Creekside, I mean what can I say?”

Jackson also disputed Watkins claim that one of the sales taxes passed was not a sunset tax. Of the two taxes passed in 2021 one is a permanent $0.25 sales tax that is designated toward the upkeep of Creekside Community Center and other parks improvements, including walking trails, improvements to ballfields, city parks, and more. The other tax is a $0.25 sales tax that is dedicated to paying off the $20 million in bonds to construct the center. A copy of the board of elections certification of the special election on May 11, 2021, obtained by KHOZ confirms that it does sunset.

The certification states, “The bond tax will expire after the bond has been paid or provision is made therefor in accordance with Arkansas statutes.”

Jackson’s election slogan is “progress as promised” and he says everything the city has done in the last four years have been focused on quality of life and if citizens like what they are seeing then vote him in for another term to see it continue.

Watkins says she feels a lot of people want to see a different attitude and approach from the city government and anyone that feels that way should vote for her.