Yes there is an election on October 13th. First my usual rant about there should not be special elections like this. It should always be on a ballot with other matters for two reasons:
- So it would get more attention and more scrutiny and more people voting about raising taxes,
- So that we could reduce the cost of having these ‘special’ elections.
I wish Bartlesville city leaders would learn to prioritize spending so that tax increases in a down economy would not be even requested. It seems wrong to require more money even a little bit for more jobs for the city when so many are doing without so much among us. As long as the majority of the people voting will say yes, these things will keep coming up for a vote. We must learn to say no, and force our leaders to cut costs and deliver only the most essential services with funds on hand.
There is plenty out there about why you should vote for this because it isn’t much and it will do so much for us – according to the ‘yes’ folks. I say if it isn’t much, then let’s cut costs somewhere else to do these things if they really are our top priority items. Please keep in mind with jobs leaving the oil sector, there may be fewer and fewer people here to cover the costs of your expenditures today – tomorrow. That will make this all even more expensive than anticipated to those still here and paying the bills.
Proposition One: 1/4-cent economic development sales tax
Proposition Two: 4/10 of a cent operational sales tax
Here’s a sample ballot. You decide for yourself. I will be voting NO on both:
Here is what the City of Bartlesville says about why you should give them more money and how they say it will be spent, but much of that is not on the ballot and only time will tell if that is where it really goes if passed. Some have asked for a report card on the money spent and success rate on economic development over time.
Update 10/14/15: Both propositions passed. Here are the vote totals.
Finding Gems and Sharing Them 