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Sales tax may be needed to save Blytheville
To the editor:
Though I live in Burdette, I consider Blytheville my home. This being said, I cannot vote on the upcoming sales tax issue. I was born in the Chickasawba Hospital in 1958 and brought home to where my mom still lives today. I attended Blytheville Public Schools for all 12 years and graduated in 1976. When I graduated from college, I could have worked anywhere in the United States, but I chose Blytheville because it's home. I served as a school board member for the Blytheville Public Schools for all but two years of my professional career, so I have a vested interest in what goes on in our town.
If you want to stop reading now, I will tell you I'm for the sales tax. Read further and I will tell you why. Bear with me as I jump around a little bit.
Lately, I have been taking different routes back and forth to work and to visit my mother. I drive slowly through the neighborhoods and just look. Some are still in decent shape, and some look like pictures from war-torn Europe back in the '40s. Just go down Main Street and observe. You have brick buildings, metal buildings, brick buildings with metal facades and you have some that are boarded up and some that have caved in. It's not just downtown -- out east Captain D's is boarded up and the truck stop across the highway has been closed down for years now. To the south and the west ends of town, there are numerous vacant buildings and many that need to be torn down on our main thoroughfares into town. Our town is at the age where these old buildings are going to start to fall apart. Some of the neighborhoods are at that age as well. Once-vibrant neighborhoods are packed with burned-out or boarded-up homes. Who wants to live next door to a vacant home? Buildings have a strange way of deteriorating when no one is in them. Most are vandalized and stripped of anything of value making them virtually impossible to resell. You think, what does this have to do with the sales tax? Read on and I will tie it all together.
I agree with many that losing Eaker Air Force Base has been a feat that we may never recover. I think that myself and many others took the base for granted and thought that it would always be there and never realized how important it was to our community. With its closure, the economic impact pretty well knocked the city to it's knees. Not only did we lose several thousand people, we lost their economic benefit and were left with an empty base. Now many of the housing units and buildings on the grounds have suffered the same deterioration that I mentioned before. We were very lucky to have Nucor come in before the base left, or we may be no more than a dot on the road now. They and the subsidiary companies that handle steel and steel byproducts have done what they can to keep our economy afloat by providing good-paying jobs and putting money into our economy.
Now we have an issue with the IRS. All of you have heard the horror stories of the IRS and audits and people going to jail and their property seized and family's lives ruined. The IRS doesn't play. The city has no means to pay the debt even if they sell off assets. Many years ago I worked for the Blytheville Water Company in the summers when I was home from college. It was there that I found out that the city wasn't very good at paying their bills. I think it's pretty evident the city pretty much has had to rob Peter to pay Paul for many years, otherwise there wouldn't be an IRS issue, jail fees issue or landfill issues. I don't think anyone has funneled any money into an "offshore" account or anything like that. More like one hand didn't know what the other hand was doing. So now what, "Hang Harrison" and/or "Grill Griggs"? That doesn't solve the IRS issue or pay the $3.7 million in taxes and penalties. Everybody is mad. They have every right to be. So what do you do?
While on the school board, we had two major millage issues that both got voted down. So what do we still have? A 50-plus-year-old gym and a cafeteria that is tiny by any modern standards. People got mad, thought the school district was rich and hiding something, so they voted against them. Who suffers? The kids do. Now the city leaders have figured a way to get the city out of this mess in a reasonable time and the people are mad and want no part of it. So what will we still have if the tax fails? Nothing. The IRS will still come knocking and want their money. Many have said, "I'm not voting for a sales tax until I know how it happened." Everyone, including myself, would like to know what happened. So say, if tomorrow all the questions were answered and we knew exactly what happened to the money, everyone would be happy and vote for the sales tax? Get real. The money is not there. No one is going to say, "Well shoot, here it is." It's been put in the wrong account. It's not hidden. That money was probably used to pay other bills. The payroll taxes weren't paid, and like it or not, they have to be paid. This sales tax seems to be the only logical way to pay it. The good thing, if there is such, about a sales tax is that everyone pays the same. You buy more, you pay more and hopefully, it will be over in 15 months.
Gosnell citizens, Armorel citizens, Missouri citizens and all other who spend money in Blytheville will help pay it. One extra cent per dollar, one extra dollar tax per hundred spent. The city of Blytheville is probably your economic hub for shopping and services of some sort whether you live in the city or not. I don't know this for a fact, but it would be safe to say the city draws strongly from a 25-mile radius. OK, so you will show 'em, you will just go shop somewhere else. Figure your gas on that. What's the saying, "the only thing for sure is death and taxes," or something along those lines.
I know we are being taxed to death. I'm still sick over the 3-mill increase on our county taxes, but it's what our elected leaders feel needs to be done to take care of all the services we take for granted. If the 1-cent tax fails, what faces us? Cut the fire department? Your insurance rates will go up. Cut police? Crime is bad enough. Cut garbage? The town will be an even bigger mess. Cut water, cut sewer, cut public works, close the golf course, sell the golf course. How much can be cut or sold to make up the $3.7 million? I'm sure the interest clock hasn't stopped on the debt. Like a bank, the IRS charges interest daily on a debt owed. I think the infrastructure of Blytheville is at a critical crossroads. The steady loss of population has put the city at a point where more money is going out than coming in. So what does that say for economic development? It tells me that this could be a dying city. Slow at first, as it has been, but as time progresses and the population continues to decline, businesses will fold, more industry will leave and all that is left is the shell of what was once a vibrant, proud community.
I hope and pray I am wrong. But if we don't have the educated population base to provide workers to an industry, what makes you think a 200-500-employee plant will locate here? It's been said that after 10 years, most major industries have just about depreciated out their buildings and equipment. At this point, it's almost as cheap to build and/or relocate, tax-wise, as to remain open where they are. If the city of Blytheville can't provide for current industry, what's going to keep them from leaving as well? I know this is a gloom and doom version, but it could very well happen if the sales tax is not passed and the IRS picks and chooses how they want paid.
With that being said, it's up to the citizens of Blytheville to vote on this sales tax. I have a voice, but no vote. But if it passes, I will be more than happy to pay my fair share to help this city get back on its feet. A city that provided the best years of my life when I was in my teens growing up. A city where I could go anywhere and not be afraid. A place I can be proud to call my home. Taxes are what make our government's world go 'round. It's just some are more efficient than others. This is my opinion, you don't have to agree.