Early voting starts tomorrow on a sales tax issue in Jonesboro. Voters are not being asked to raise any taxes, but they are going to consider changing the way the tax is spent. In 2000, voters approved a permanent one cent city sales tax. Half of the money generated can be spent on capital improvements and the other half goes to general operations. The tax generates about $7.5 million dollars annually for the city. On August 12, voters will be asked to lift the capital improvement restriction and let all of the money go toward the general revenue fund. Jonesboro Mayor Harold Perrin says the change would allow city officials to direct money from the tax to go where it is most needed. Perrin says the city has two more years left to pay for projects that cost almost three and a half million dollars. If the voters approve the special provision, Perrin says money can be redirected to pay off that total more quickly. Craighead County Clerk Kade Holliday says early voting will take place tomorrow through Friday and next Monday in the Craighead County Election Annex from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Election day is Tuesday, August 12. The tax will remain the same if voters reject the tax issue.
Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.