Another sales tax proposal for the jail, another defeat.

FOR — 12,088 42.8 percent

Advertisement

AGAINST — 16,112 57.2 percent

It was a chamber of commerce campaign and the precinct results showed. Outside of favorable votes in Hillcrest and the Heights, the tax was beaten soundly just about everywhere else. I was interested at the measure’s failure in the city’s most crime-prone neighborhoods, where the returning scourge of burglars and thugs freed from jail constitutes a greater present danger than  elsewhere. Defeats in unincorporated Pulaski, which opposes nearly all tax measures, and in North Little Rock, already paying for an essential (sarcasm intended) ballpark and facing a huge electric rate increase, were less surprising.

Advertisement

I swung by the county administration building last night to check in with the Election Commission. Only the early votes had been tabulated then. The  tax increase was leading only 1,551 to 1,525. I took this as a bad sign, because early voting strikes me as typically friendly to taxes. In this case, the number was swollen by all the county employees who voted at the courthouse. Many of their jobs could now be  in jeopardy as the county comes up with ways to cope. Operating a jail with hundreds fewer beds than we operated more than a decade ago is no solution. The cities will have to pay more. But, please, don’t forget that most of the “county’s” money already comes from the cities in the first place — through the county sales tax and county property tax collected in incorporated areas.

No real-time election results were posted on the web last night. The election commission’s tech people say they discovered that you could hack into results during the time they were posting results in earlier elections. No one is saying that happened , naturally.

Advertisement

It would be nice  if the commission could figure a way to generate results to a server that isn’t holding protected election results as precincts come in. We can dream, can’t we?

 

Advertisement

Help to Keep Great Journalism Alive in Arkansas

Join the fight for truth and become a subscriber of the Arkansas Times. We've been battling powerful forces for 50 years through our tough, determined, and feisty journalism. With over 63,000 Facebook followers, 58,000 Twitter followers, 35,000 Arkansas blog followers, and 70,000 daily email blasts, our readers value great journalism. But we need your help to do even more. By subscribing and supporting our efforts, you'll not only have access to all of our articles, but you'll also be helping us hire more writers to expand our coverage. Together, we can continue to hold the powerful accountable and bring important stories to light. Subscribe now or donate for as little as $1 and be a part of the Arkansas Times community.

Previous article Always with the charter schools — always Next article Following the money