Voters in Bettendorf School District decide they are Taxed Enough Already
To the best of our recollection, stand-alone ballot proposal for tax increases benefiting schools tended to be for compelling sounding things and tended to pass in Bettendorf and other local bedroom oriented school districts. Tuesday’s tax increase vote, ostensibly for playground equipment but really a fund shifting general educational tax increase with no sunset provision, narrowly failed, 49% supporting it, 51% opposing.
It was a request for $12.88 from the average homeowner per year. Not a lot. Opponents either thought the request unneeded or perhaps even so small as to be superfluous and unwarranted as a ballot measure, or they figured out, as the ballot measure actually read, it was a shiftable slush fund, available for the advertised purpose, but not confined to it. All matters which comprised our objection, combined with the core value that taxpayers in this community are taxed enough already.
The vote was confined to two locations with miniscule vote by mail participation. The Church vote favored it (located closer to the upper income parts of the community and failed in the City Hall location, closer to the generally lower-income (older) housing areas of the city. The turnout was 7.6% which was very credible. Contested School Board races for a regular school board election can see higher turnout in Bettendorf (9.2% in 2013) but regular school board elections with a ballot measure but uncontested board positions might pull only 2.1 % (2009) or 2.9% (2011).
We suspect the looming and uniformly substantially increased property tax bills, already payable, had a motivational impact to oppose more increases. Memo to tax and spenders . . . citizen vigilance can be a bitch . . . avoid stand alone-tax increase referendum votes at the same time as property tax due bills. R Mall
