Wednesday - November 07, 2007

Hamilton County Voters Reject Sales Tax Increase Again

Last November, Hamilton County voters rejected an increase in the county sales to fund a new jail. Then six months, in May of 2007, the two Democratic members of the county board of commissioners decided to enact a sales tax increase to fund a new jail without voter approval (read my previous post on this here).

In response, the voters of Hamilton County collected enough signatures to challenge this outright disregard of the people's will (read my previous post on this here).

Well, last night, the people spoke again and the sales tax increase was rejected. As a conservative, this was a difficult decision. On the one hand, law and order is one of the basic functions of government. Conservatives, by nature, prefer order.

Yet in this case, that really isn't the issue. Conservatives (why the Democrats voted against this issue is another story) still prize order and realize the need for a new and larger jail in Hamilton County. Larger principles came into play on issue 27.

Even though conservatives value order, they also trust the will of the people. And that will was disregarded by our elected officials. Additionally, I believe most conservatives in Hamilton County who voted against this issue, don't buy into "doomsday" budget cuts that the commissioners promised if this sales tax wasn't passed. 

People aren't stupid. They see that the County could build two stadiums for the Bengals and the Reds. The County has money for the Banks project. And everyone who drives 1-71 on a daily basis sees that the City of Cincinnati and the State of Ohio has extra money to station 5 or 6 cruisers everyday to increase revenue intake.

It is a question of priorities. Public safety is one of government's basic functions. It is now up to the Democratic Commissioners to decide what isn't a priority, cut them, and then build the jail with the money from these discontinued programs.

This will require hard choices, maybe even unpopular choices. That is why the commissioners decided to raise the sales tax, because it was the easy choice.

Here is part of the Enquirer's report on the defeat of Issue 27:

For the second time in two years, Hamilton County voters killed a plan to raise the sales taxes to pay for a new jail.

Voters defeated the sales tax increase - also known as Issue 27 - 56 percent to 44 percent.

The margin of defeat for the jail tax narrowed slightly compared to a similar plan on the ballot a year ago. Then, in a much higher turnout election, 43 percent of voters approved the tax.

As with last year, the racial split was considerable. Only 33 percent of voters living in predominately African-American precincts approved of the tax, according to an Enquirer analysis. In predominately white precincts, 45 percent approved.

Republicans were somewhat more likely to support the tax than Democrats. In the precincts where a Republican won the congressional race last year, 45 percent approved of the jail issue. Among Democratic precincts, only 40 percent voted for it.

Author: The Machiavellian
Technorati Tags: Ohio Hamilton County Issue 27
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