Since the Blytheville leadership has yet to decide how to repay the $3.2 million delinquent payroll tax debt to the Internal Revenue Service, here is one possible way to bite off a chunk, if it's legal.
Perhaps the Council could pass a measure that strips former Blytheville Mayor Barrett Harrison of his first five years of retirement benefits.
Next Aug. 24, Harrison will be eligible for half his mayoral salary, which was $70,247.58 in 2010, according to the city's personnel office.
Had the 2008 City Council not passed Ordinance 1678, the 54-year-old Harrison would have to wait an additional five years to begin collecting.
The ordinance, passed Sept. 16, 2008, lowered the Blytheville mayoral retirement age from 60 to 55 and, essentially, it cost taxpayers an additional $175,618.95, maybe more.
Even though the IRS mess happened under Harrison's watch, the former mayor is due to collect at least $35,123.79 a year for the rest of his life; then, if he has a wife of 10 years or more, she will collect half of that following his death.
Arkansas Code 24-12-123 has a section that reads: "(5) On January 1 of each year, if a retiree under this section has been retired for at least twelve (12) full months, up to a three percent (3%) cost-of-living increase will be added."
The city ordinance doesn't mention the 3 percent increase, but it references the Arkansas Statute that allowed the Council to lower the age. A 3 percent raise would mean Harrison would receive about $39,500 in his fifth year of retirement. If that is the case, he would make nearly $4,000 more per year at 60 than he would have if the Council had kept the retirement age at 60.
The early retirement benefit, paid monthly, is just another punch to the gut of Blytheville residents.
Of course, Harrison and other trusts may be responsible for some of the IRS debt. In a Freedom of Information request, Harrison's attorney recently indicated the former mayor owes in excess of $1.7 million of the city of Blytheville's $3.2 million delinquent payroll taxes to the Internal Revenue Service. Attorney Rita Reed Harris of Forrest City wrote that the IRS is seeking to recover the money from Harrison under Section 6672 of the Internal Revenue Code, Trust Fund Penalties.
Still, it seems unfair that Harrison will be blessed with retirement benefits five years sooner than is legally required, given the fiscal condition of the city when he left office.
Current Blytheville Mayor James Sanders has a chance to right a wrong on two levels. He was on the City Council at the time of the ordinance's passage.
In fact, according to the minutes, after Councilman Mylas Jeffers offered the ordinance, Sanders seconded a motion by former Councilman R.L. Jones to suspend the rules and read by title only the ordinance for the second time, preventing it from being read the three times at three separate meetings. Then, Sanders moved, seconded by Jones, that it be read a third time by title only.
Both motions were approved with a unanimous 6-0 vote by Jeffers, Sanders, Councilwoman Shirley Overman and former Council members Jones, Shirley Connealy and John Singleton.
Jeffers moved for adoption, seconded by Jones, and the ordinance passed with a 6-0 vote.
The measure established the age that the mayor becomes eligible for retirement benefits at 55, if the person is in office 10 years or more.
Harrison was in office for 12 years before opting not to seek re-election last year because he had a lucrative job in waiting -- as president of the Blytheville-Gosnell Regional Airport Authority, where he now earns roughly $80,000 a year.
The Council should consider repealing the ordinance, or at least amending the minimum age to 60 years and making it retroactive to the passage of 1678.
Put that nearly $200,000 towards the IRS bill, instead of in Harrison's bank account.
mbrasfield@couriernews