In a special election on May 3, 2012, Lansing voters rejected a 4 mill property tax increased touted so save the jobs of many fire fighters and police officers and to go toward road projects.
The unofficial results from the city indicate that 52% of the total 13,359 voters went against the millage.
People voted against the millage. Is that the end of the story? It could be. But there could be more.
At the 11th hour, in response to citizen concerns city council passed a resolution to offer greater assurances the the millage funds would be spent on police, fire, and roads, as advertised by the city.
(The vague ballot language allowed for expenditures to be used on “essential services” rather than dedicated to specific areas. Some felt that open-ended language gave too much latitude in how millage funds could be spent as has been alleged with past millage funds.)
But let’s remember — absentee voters cast their ballots weeks ago before that 11th hour assurance was made.
The folks voting at the ballot box on May 3 voted differently than the absentee voters. Regular voters from precincts 1, 2, and 3 passed the millage handily:
Were those margins enough to pass the millage entirely? Sure enough. When you take out all the absentee voters, those Lansing voters standing in the ballot box on May 3 passed the millage 51% to 49%.
Could an earlier discussion of public concerns mattered? If council had offered this resolution weeks ago, could it have passed? If the city administration would have offered more specific ballot language could it have helped assuage citizen fears?
Or were those absentee voters just so demographically different from the regular voters. After all, a lot of folks are watching pennies, not just dollars, these days.
Hopefully the “real life” pollsters can weigh in these questions of interest to some of the geeks among us.
But to me this result is another example of what I see in Lansing is too little attention being paid to resident voices. It was another example in which the cit was asking residents to have faith in its word when past history has left room for doubt. It seems that the pool of good between residents and its leaders could use some refilling.
The spirit of the law is not going to cut it in this climate which lacks good will. So to move forward we need to have the letter of the law spelled out in these budget decisions.
What’s your take?
[...] Was the city council resolution too late to save the millage? [...]