Daniel Prince
Tax defeated by 74 votes
The Capital Project Sales Tax question was a much more closely contested race, with the lead in the tally changing several times throughout the evening as different precincts reported. At the end of the evening, voters narrowly defeated the proposal, 1581-1507, or 51.2% to 48.8%. The race was tight in most precincts, with only 5 precincts having more than a 30-vote difference in the vote totals. Of those, Buffalo Box 1, Jonesville Box 1, Lockhart, and Monarch Box 1 voted against the proposed tax, while Ward 2 voted for the tax. Thirteen precincts voted in favor of the tax to 10 voting against.
Supervisor Frank Hart told WBCU News that the current state of the economy hurt the effort, which began when economic conditions were better:
(audio below story)
Hart told us that the law prohibits the government change referendum from being put on the ballot for at least another four years. He said there is no such limitation on the capital project sales tax, but due to the work involved in getting all the information needed for the projects and the work involved by the commission in selecting the projects, it would be at least two years, and probably longer, before the subject would be brought up again.
For full election results, visit www.wbcuradio.net/election.