One day after voters rejected a bid to extend the five-eights cent sales tax, commonly called the Go Forward tax for another seven years and rejected a permanent three-eights cent tax for police and fire, Ryan Watley, the CEO of Go Forward Pine Bluff was asked what happened.
Watley appeared on the Oldies 1013 morning show where host Greg Horne pointed out that when the tax was first approved, about 3,800 people voted for it. In May, when the initial effort to extend it failed, the number voting for it dropped to 1,900 and on Tuesday, less than 1,500 people voted for it.
Also in May, just over 2,000 voters said no and on Tuesday, the disapproval rate dropped to 1,958.
Watley went on to say this.
He said it was hard to overcome some of the negative things that were being said and they felt like they had but ultimately they could not.
