KINGMAN — Finding a new revenue stream to support infrastructure upgrades and other needs for the City of Kingman has been a subject of discussion for decades. And no one has ever thought the city can gain required voter approval of a primary property tax it currently lacks.
So how does the City secure the many millions of dollars needed to build out the roadway network necessary to make full use of the Interstate 40 Flying Fortress exit? How does it come up with tens of millions dollars more needed to build out the Sunbelt Park?
A multi-million dollar recreation center is envisioned as well, and the city’s crumbling roadways are sorely in need of long term TLC, rather than temporary fixes.
Increasing service fees and bond financing have been discussed over the years, but increasing the city sales tax clearly appears to be the most likely vehicle to be contemplated going forward.
“There has been discussion,” said City Manager Tim Walsh. “I think there’s additional discussion to be had on that.”
Voter approval of a citizen initiative in 2018 prohibited the Kingman City Council from raising sales tax without special election approval at the ballot box. The measure spearheaded by citizen Doug Dickmeyer, with support from prominent members of the local business community, passed by a significant margin, drawing 5,667 votes, 61% of those who cast ballots.
The current council essentially undermined the will of the people expressed in that 2018 election last September 16 by repealing the portion of the ordinance that prohibited Council-imposed sales tax hikes without voter approval. The council said nothing when the agenda item was called, and approved it unanimously following the motion by Shawn Savage and second by council member Jim Dykens.
City Attorney Carl Cooper told the Council they had legal authority to repeal the voter-approved sales tax restriction, given a favorable ruling in litigation involving the town of Payson, Arizona.
“It opened the door to be able to look at that revenue stream and being able to make this happen,” Walsh said. “Part of the conversation has been is this (sales tax increase) the way to go with this? It’s definitely one of the possible options, but nothing concrete has been determined on that just yet.”
Walsh said it’s not clear whether or when the Council will address new revenue possibilities in conjunction with the upcoming budget process, or later in the year.
Sunbelt Park
Walsh said the City has $7-million in its current budget for the new Sunbelt Park planned just east of the White Cliffs Middle School in the vicinity of the Fireman’s Memorial Park, south of I-40. He said full build out of the Sunbelt park is estimated at $20-million.
That begs the question of whether the City gets started with the first project portion, or hold off until all funding is secured?
“We’re working through plans for it, getting it ready but ultimately it will be that question,” Walsh said. “Do we just put as much turf down righ now as we can within the 7 (million dollars), or do we leverage that in order to get the full amount.”
Recycling pilot program future?
Previous Kingman municipal recycling efforts failed to reach the goal of a self-sustaining program, not requiring subsidy by the citizenry. The Council last approved a contract arrangement implementing limited recycling for a fee of roughly $7.50 per vehicle load.
Utilization of the pilot program implemented early last October has been underwhelming.
“We have been monitoring it. It’s not gotten the movement that we were hoping that it would get,” Walsh said. He said the Council will soon consider whether the pilot recycling program should be extended, modified or sunset.
“That was really the (council) direction that we got is that in order to go forward with it, it needed to pay for itself and right now, we’re not seeing the numbers to be able to make it pay for itself.”
