By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
The crime rate in Forrest City is declining, despite a national report that says crime statistics nationwide are showing a slight increase.
An FBI report released earlier this week shows there were 11.9 million crimes reported to the FBI by city, county and state law enforcement agencies in 2002, which represents an increase of less than 1 percent when compared to 2001 figures. The number of crimes was 4.9 percent lower than in 1998.
According to a report from the Forrest City Police Department, the number of crimes reported to the FBI by the FCPD for 2002 was 18 percent lower than the figures reported last year.
"Where the national average showed a slight increase, we actually showed a large decline in the number of crimes that we reported to the FBI. Our numbers dating back to 1998 show an even greater decline," said FCPD Criminal Investigation Division Lt. Det. Dwight Duch.
According to a Times-Herald story earlier this year, crime statistics offered by the Arkansas Crime Information Center, or ACIC, for 2002 indicated a small rise in crime for Forrest City. The ACIC tracks eight categories of crime in every county and major city in the state. The crime statistics used are for homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assaults, burglary, motor vehicle thefts, thefts and arsons. According to ACIC information provided by both the Forrest City Police Department and the St. Francis County Sheriff's Department.
ACIC figures show increases in the crimes of assault and arson in comparison to 2001 with 425 assaults for 2002 and six arson cases. In 2001, the numbers were 288 assaults and two arsons.
During the same period of time, rapes increased from six to nine, motor vehicle thefts dropped three from 57 two years ago to 54 last year, and burglaries decreased by one from 204 to 203.
While there were increases, two categories saw a sizable decrease in 2002. Robberies fell from 41 in 2001 to 25, and thefts were down from 874 to 823, a decrease of 41 cases.
Overall, numbers for Forrest City have shown a decrease according to the FCPD figures. According to the report, Forrest City's crime index mirrored the overall FBI decrease of 22 percent since 1998. During that time period, there was a 46 percent decrease in burglaries; a 39 percent decrease in robberies and a 15 percent decrease in assaults.
The St. Francis County Sheriff's Department had an overall decrease in crime tracked by the ACIC from 2001 to 2002, but the most dramatic decrease was in homicides, where the numbers changed from six in 2001 to zero in 2002.
While the murder cases bottomed out, other categories showed a significant increase from 2001 to 2002. In the county, rape cases increased from three in 2001 to eight in 2002. Arsons went up from two to six in the same time period and an motor vehicle thefts increased by 26 from 2001 to 69 in 2002.
During the same time period, the number of thefts in the county dropped by 45 cases from 188 in 2001 to 143 in 2002. Assaults increased from 19 to 20, and burglaries increased from 79 to 83. The total of crimes in the county listed by the ACIC were down from 346 in 2001 to 337 in 2002.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The call for removing sales tax exemptions, being made by the Arkansas Municipal League, has less than universal support locally.
With money tight and education reform mandated by the courts, the Municipal League's proposal isn't the only one being made along those lines.
The Forrest City City Council recently adopted a resolution supporting the Municipal League's position on removing sales tax exemptions.
Forrest City Mayor Larry Bryant said it is an idea whose time has come, and said more regular citizens need to know about it. "If the general public understood how regressive the sales tax is, there would be, as they say in Congress, a hue and cry for change," said Bryant. "We believe, on the sales tax issue, that we should not raise the sales tax on the people of Arkansas, but rather should expand the base, and not increase the tax on John Q. Public."
By Municipal League estimates, removing the sales tax exemptions would raise $372.5 million annually.
The idea is that if the exemptions were removed, the overall tax increase to fund court-mandated education reform would not have to be as high.
State Rep. Danny Ferguson said the Municipal League's plan isn't the only one. He said that at a recent meeting of the Revenue and Taxation Committee, a group called Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families was endorsing a similar plan. This plan includes an increase in corporate income tax, an increase in severance tax, an increase in personal income tax for the wealthiest Arkansans, a repeal of sales tax exemptions on all services except medical and a one-half percent general sales tax increase.
Ferguson said the matter has gotten a lot of attention, but he also said there almost always is some discussion of removing exemptions, and they almost always die.
"There'll be tons of opposition to it," Ferguson said. "Every phase of business that has an exemption will be descending on the Capitol halls to defend their exemption, there's no question."
Ferguson agreed that the idea sounds good.
"The theory is that there are a lot of things exempt right now, for which there is no rhyme or reason," he said. "You pay sales tax for this and you don't for that. There is thinking out there, and I think this is the Municipal League's thinking, that we should remove the exemptions on most services and see what that raises, and then that will lower the amount of the tax increase that the Legislature will have to come back and vote in for education.
"But I can also tell you," he continued, "With every session I've been a part of, there has been talk of removing exemptions, and it's one big battle."
A simple majority vote would be needed on the sales tax measure, Ferguson said, while practically all other tax measures require a larger majority.
Some people whose businesses would be affected by the removal of sales tax exemptions were contacted.
Attorney fees are currently exempt. Local attorney Brad Beavers said that the previously mentioned "John Q. Public" would still be the one paying for increased or new taxes, no matter what those taxes were for.
"For regular citizens, it's not something they can pass on," Beavers said. "Businesses can pass (taxes) on to their customers, but the customers, the individuals, have no way of passing that tax along to anyone else. So it's still going to hit the individuals harder."
He also said that from an economic development standpoint, not all states have sales taxes on services, and that it might keep some service providers from being competitive if they had to pay.
Beavers also likened taxing attorney fees to a "misery tax."
"Most people who need a lawyer -- it's not something they want to do. It's something they have to do," he said. "They need to probate an estate, or maybe someone has sued them. It's not something they have a choice about. So it's almost a misery tax."
It is estimated that a sales tax on attorney fees would raise $10 million yearly.
Danny Capps, of Express Cleaners, another business that would have to start charging sales tax, said it may be unavoidable, but said it shouldn't be done all at once.
"I don't think there's any way to avoid people paying, because you have to have money to make the state function," he said. "But to bring a sales tax on something that has never had a sales tax is, I think, very unreasonable. I think if they're going to do something like that, it needs to be phased in, not just hit us with that kind of increase across the board."
The estimated revenue from a sales tax on dry cleaning and landry services is $2.75 million annually.
Some of the other services that are currently exempt from sales tax, and the estimated revenue that would be raised yearly if they were taxed under the Municipal League proposal include:
Accounting services, $7.5 million; barbers and beauticians, $2.125 million; collection and disposal of solid waste, $4.5 million; computer software counseling services, computer software, computer modifications, computer licensing fees, custom programming services computer design services, $6 million; dry cleaning and laundry services, $2.75 million; funeral services, $2.75 million; lobbyists and public relations fees, $150,000; secretarial, word processing and court reporting services, $1 million; Travel arrangement, reservation services and travel agencies, $500,000; veterinary services, $1 million; wrecker and towing services, $750,000; physician services, $64 million; ambulance services, $1 million; dental services, $12 million; nursing and residential care facilities, $2.5 million.
By ALAN SMITH
T-H Staff Writer
United States Sen. Blanche Lincoln is asking for more federal funding to clean up methamphetamine labs in Arkansas and nationwide.
According to a press release from Lincoln's office in Washington, D.C., the Arkansas senator is asking for $20 million in federal money that was cut in this year's appropriations process in the U.S. Senate to be restored by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
"These meth lab sites are characterized by toxic chemicals, making them a danger to children, animals and communities," Lincoln said. "To just seize the labs down isn't enough. We need to finish the job and put these drug manufacturing sites out of commission.
"In the last decade, methamphetamine has emerged as a leading drug threat in Arkansas and nationwide," continued Lincoln. "Curbing the manufacture and distribution of meth is a top priority...We need to devote more resources to cleaning up toxic meth lab sites. Given the enormous challenges that law enforcement officials face in battling this dangerous drug, federal help is more important than ever.
According to Drug Enforcement Administration statistics provided in the release, 955 meth labs were confiscated in the state in 2002. As of Sept. 30 of this year, 953 labs had been seized. It also shows that in 1993, the total number of sites closed down was 16.
According to the DEA, the cost of cleaning a single lab ranges from $3,000 to $90,000 per site. Using this as a guide, cleaning up the sites found so far this year would cost between $2,859,000 and $85,770,000, DEA officials said. That cost, according to Lincoln's office, is too much for struggling states and local economies to bear.
Gene Wingo, the St. Francis County Narcotics Investigator, stated that those figures, "seem about right." The government hires independent clean-up crews to clear the sites and the cost depends on how big of a site it is.
"We have made arrests on about 10 sites this year in the county," said Wingo. "We have had about the same number that people have found in the woods and have reported to us. Just a few years ago, we would find one or two labs in the county. It (meth production) has steadily increased in the last six years."
Wingo talked about the dangers the labs cause the general public. "The chemicals used to make meth are highly explosive and that causes a threat. People cook it in houses, apartments, hotel rooms and even in their cars. We have had two this year driving along in their cars with it cooking on the engine. They just drive along and wait for it to react." Wingo added that hazards to a person's health include eye irritation, lung problems and burns if someone comes in contact with the acids used to make meth.
While Wingo stated that the sheriff's department welcomes any help the government can give them in cleaning up these hazardous sites, he has his own thoughts about who should foot the bill. "I'd like to see the people who are cooking this stuff up pay the bill instead of the government. All of that money spent to clean the sites up is taxpayers money."
A third drug bust in as many days has been made by state troopers patrolling Interstate 40.
A Dallas man, who gave police his address as that of a homeless shelter in Dallas, was arrested after troopers with Arkansas State Police Troop D headquarters in Forrest City found one kilo of cocaine hidden in the dashboard of his vehicle.
According to the arrest report, a 1999 Ford Taurus, driven by Cameron Bridges, 30, was stopped for improper lane usage near the Forrest City exit about 9:30 Thursday morning. After obtaining consent to search the vehicle, troopers found the block of cocaine hidden behind the passenger airbag on the vehicle.
Bridges is charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and no proof of insurance.
The murder trial for an Arkansas rapist freed from prison by Gov. Mike Huckabee is scheduled to begin Monday in Liberty, Mo.
A spokesperson with the Clay County Prosecutor's office today said jury selection was completed on Thursday, clearing the way for Wayne Dumond's first-degree murder trial to begin.
Dumond is charged with the death of Carol Shields, whose body was found in a friend's home about 10 miles from Dumond's home in Missouri on Sept. 20, 2000. He moved to that state after being freed from the Arkansas Department of Corrections.
Dumond was convicted in Arkansas in the 1984 rape of a Forrest City teenager. He was originally sentenced to life plus 20 years for the rape, but his sentence was commuted in 1992, by then-Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, to 39 years and six months. He was released from prison in 1999 on the condition that he leave the state. He moved to Missouri after that state's parole system agreed to monitor him.
Shortly after taking office in 1996, Huckabee said he had "serious questions" about Dumond's guilt and thus the process of setting him free began with the state's parole board.