CRAWFORD COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Ark. — Due to a clerical error, Crawford County will lose millions of dollars of tax revenue over the next few months.
According to the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration (DFA), “there will be a three-month period in which this sales and use tax is not collected” in Crawford County.
DFA reports that in May 2015, Crawford County voted to change the sales tax until the end of September 2023, and over a year ago they voted to maintain those changes until September 2031, but in August 2023, the DFA said they had yet to receive the required paperwork.
Crawford County Judge Chris Keith said there’s no one person to blame for this. "It is just an unfortunate incident that happened and a clerical error that we've done everything we can to try to rectify this year,” Judge Keith said.
The DFA says that county officials are required by law to send in paperwork detailing any tax changes, but Crawford County failed to send in the documents by the due date.
“The law says that anytime there's a change, before 90 days of implementation, we have to be notified,” said Scott Hardin, spokesperson for the DFA.
Even though the documents were reportedly received by mid-August, it was too late. So, between Oct. 1, 2023, and Jan. 1, 2024, there will reportedly be no sales tax collection across Crawford County.
“The county did provide [the documentation]. Unfortunately, it just wasn't within that timeframe, and there's nothing that we can do in that situation,” Hardin said.
Judge Keith says the pause in the sales tax will impact the whole county and all the cities.
He says the county divides the funds from the tax between the road department, public safety, and the general county fund.
Based on collections for previous years, the DFA says this could be a financial loss of up to $3 million.
At this point, Judge Keith says all they can do is move forward.
“Due to what we have actually generated this year, versus what we anticipated for the year, it's not going to impact us quite as hard as far as the way we budgeted for anticipated for the year. But it does put us that much more behind,” Judge Keith said.
Judge Keith says officials have been discussing ways they can cut back over the next three months on public safety and the road department to help with the financial loss. He says everything is in order to continue the tax again in January.
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