LINCOLN, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — People living in Lincoln will have an extra question on their ballots in November; whether or not to approve a one percent sales tax.

The tax will fund what the city’s mayor said are necessary expansions to its fire and police departments.

Right now, the fire department only has one full-time employee and a handful of volunteers.

Its’ police department only has six officers.

Mayor Doug Hutchens said the short staffing becomes more of an issue as the city, and the areas its first responders cover grows.

“We don’t expect a big revenue windfall to come from our population,” he said. “But we see the extra traffic, we just don’t have the increase in population to fund what it takes to monitor the extra traffic and the extra incidents.”

The city has not used sales tax to fund these departments before.