Mayor answering sales tax questions on live TV show tonight
Posted on Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Fayetteville Mayor Dan Coody will hold a live callin and e-mail show at 7 p.m. today for the upcoming sales tax bond election. Questions and comments are welcome via telephone at 444-3434 or e-mail at governmentchannel @ yahoo. com. The show will be televised live on Cox Channel 16.
Susan Thomas, Ron Petrie, Dave Jurgens and Matt Mihalevich will accompany Coody on the program.
The public is also invited to be seated in the PEG Center break room and watch the live telecast. The PEG television Center Studio is located at 101 W. Rock St. A telephone and wireless Internet connection will be available in the break room and a computer connected to the Internet in Bay 2 will be available for asking question during the live program.
The Sept. 12 ballot will feature four questions seeking to add a 1 / 4 cent sales tax and extend the 3 / 4 cent sewer tax approved in 2001 to pay for up to $ 125 million for the Wastewater System Improvement Project. Approval of any of the four questions will add the 1 / 4 cent tax, bringing the total general sales tax in Fayetteville to 9. 25.
Question No. 1 would approve up to $ 25 million to be issued immediately. The second question would authorize issuing another $ 17. 1 million for the sewer project, but because the city may need the money before the second planned bond issue, it may have to borrow the $ 17. 1 million against the revenue generated by water and sewer rates.
The $ 68 million in transportation projects will also require two questions and is what is left of a larger Transportation Improvement Project that would have required approving the 1 cent tax to pay around $ 170 million. The $ 68 million covers the first phase of the larger project, which the city still plans to pursue. The ballot's third question is for streets, and the fourth question is for trails.
Voters will have the opportunity to approve the 1 cent tax to pay for $ 65. 9 million for street projects, which is question No. 3 on the ballot. Question No. 4 would allow for $ 2. 1 million for trail improvements, primarily Scull Creek Trail.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
