The defeat of Douglas County's three ballot initiatives is being analyzed by their proponents, some publicly, some less so.
It has been our experience that it takes a ton of work to get Douglas County voters to open their pocketbooks and sometimes even that is not enough.
It has been a decade and a half since Douglas County voters have agreed to tax themselves for a major building project. They approved a $29 million school bond on May 19, 1992. The bond built Pau-Wa-Lu Middle School and Minden and Piñon Hills elementary schools.
An examination of that successful effort is in order to properly analyze efforts to raise taxes in this last election.
The school district had failed twice before to get a bond passed, despite experiencing high levels of student growth. An independent group was formed shortly after the failure of the second bond issue to campaign for the issue in the next election. The school district formed a citizens committee to examine its plan in open meetings. When the committee completed its work, the school district adopted the plan devised by residents.
In other words, it took a substantial investment in time and energy over the course of a year to produce a plan that worked. It didn't hurt that the school bond was on the ballot by itself either.
It would appear to a casual observer that the county's tax initiatives were an effort to throw stuff at a wall and see what stuck. We know there was a lot more to it, but we weren't the ones who had to be convinced.
It's important that the folks who supported the tax questions begin preparing for the next election now if they have any hope of changing voters' minds in 2008.
