FORT SMITH, Ark. — Sebastian County voters chose not to extend the one-quarter of 1% sales tax the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith received funds from since 2001.
Chancellor Terisa Riley says the tax revenue brought in about $6 million a year and makes up 8% of their budget. She says they are going to have to look at their spending and where they can cut back.
“We are completely an affordable institution because of some of the great choices we’ve made over the years and partially because of this sales tax, so we’ll take a critical look at what we are charging in tuition and fees and make every attempt to stay the most affordable four-year institution in the state,” Riley said.
The University has about 1.2 million square feet of space that needs to be maintained to be able to continue offering four-year degrees. They say maintenance is something they may have to look into cutting back on without the sales tax.
Assistant Professor Kerrie Taber says she is concerned about their budget being cut but trusts that leadership will make sure they keep going.
“A lot of my colleagues and I are more concerned about being able to give the students the education that they deserve and need and give them the equipment. Just some of the things that help make UAFS a good institution for the area and help Fort Smith grow,” Taber said.
Riley says they will have to be creative in coming up with the missing funding but don’t plan just to make it up by increasing tuition and fees or by cutting the people who have dedicated their careers to the university.
“We will of course be continuing our grant writing that we’ve been doing and have been very successful at recently whether that’s in our sciences or in support systems for students, we’ll continue to do grant writing," she said. "We have a revenue generation subcommittee of our budget council looking at a variety of ways to capture some savings or some additional revenues."
The sales tax will be taken off the books at the end of 2021. The University says it plans to look at the analysis of voter data to decide if a special election is a good choice in 2021.