Stay the course
Editor, The Commercial:
What is Best for Pine Bluff?
Pine Bluff’s registered voters must decide on the May 9th tax regarding Go Forward Pine Bluff to Vote For or Against. Questions voters should consider during early voting.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Gentle reader, have you noticed lately, Pine Bluff is a city on life support for several reasons, but the main reasons are funding and before GFPB, had no plan. Some say pull the plug and let it die a slow death, without trying to correct the flaws and deficiencies. We all are aware of what happens when there is no funding to run a program.
Therefore, I raise these questions for your consideration:
1. Do we want to kill GFPB and leave dilapidated and boarded-up houses standing? One boarded home on a block reduces property value by $1,500 to $2,000 for other homeowners on the same block. Would as many houses have been razed without GFPB’s efforts?
2. Where will funding be obtained to sustain the city’s grant writer, which has brought in millions of dollars of support for this town? Who will take on this task?
3. How do we support teachers and get those first-time home buyers into a new home? If GFPB fails at the ballot box, how do we improve the things started by GFPB? Everyone knows the city needs more funding to keep essential services going. The city needs more resources to fully staff the street department for crews to adequately repair streets and potholes and clean ditches to help drainage flow. Let us know how we address sidewalks throughout the city for pedestrian use and remove fallen limbs, overgrown vegetation, debris, etc. How can the city tackle these additional problems and fill the gaps that GFPB fills now without funding?
A city on “growth life support” cannot afford to stop and start over without sliding further toward the point of no return as they grapple with a new plan to be developed and deployed. If the city holds another election, who pays for that, and how much would that new plan cost taxpayers? How long can taxpayers wait, and how long will it take to develop and deploy a new working plan? Will residents remain in Pine Bluff or move to a better, cleaner city?
I recommend that GFPB utilize the $45k program developed by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) in Washington, D.C., to revitalize the University Park Neighborhood around UAPB. The IEDC plan contains multiple best practices for neighborhood revitalization. When no working goal is available, others will fill that gap, which is what GFPB has done. How long will city officials allow the waterfront property around Lake Pine Bluff (Saracen) to remain undeveloped before visionaries devise a plan to develop this gold mine?
We can’t throw the baby out with the bath water or shoot ourselves in the foot. We should stay the course, continue progressing and make any needed changes to deploying GFPB. Should this initiative be defeated, the city’s quality of life will suffocate, and progress will die from a self-inflicted wound.
Therefore, I support the passage of the May 9th GFPB tax initiative and encourage other clergies and citizens to support this effort.
Rev. Jesse C. Turner, executive director,
Pine Bluff Interested Citizens for Voter Registration Inc.
Honor agreement
Editor, The Commercial:
The Founding Fathers recognized taxation as an onus of governance. Seeking to make it as painless as possible, they turned to a monetary unit of just a fraction of a penny, surely not enough to be a threat to a man’s wallet. With enough men, though, that fraction can yield a tidy sum.
Sometimes, though, more money is needed for a particular project, or for a short period. So a sunset clause is added, something to assure the voting public that its elected leaders recognize the burden of taxes but still want to raise them, but only briefly, and usually for a specific reason. Once the need has been met, the tax will die, as it should.
We now have a situation where local officials want to turn a temporary tax into a permanent tax. This ignores the fact that it was intended as nothing more than a short-time burden, one that would need no extension. Is that not akin to breaking a lease? We made a pact, but now they don’t want to abide by it?
I’m inclined to say, “We had an agreement, and we’re going to stick to that agreement. If you want more money, then we need to make a new agreement, one maybe you’ll honor.” Then let them get by for a while on what they received before the latest tax was added, so they will learn to appreciate not just the added revenue but the people who provide it.
D.H. Ridgway,
Pine Bluff