The King County tax measure on the Tuesday special-election ballot continues to be passing in votes counted Wednesday.
The levy would provide money for replacing the county's emergency public-safety radio network.
Votes counted Wednesday showed the passage margin increasing to 65.2%-34.8% from the 65.0%-35.0% Tuesday.
The levy had 177,034 "yes" votes and 94,508 "no" votes.
County elections officials had 290,239 uncounted ballots on hand at the end of counting Wednesday, with more ballots continuing to arrive.
Officials will continue to report new results each weekday through final certification of returns May 12.
Officials counted 21,557 new ballots Wednesday, raising the total counted to 271,542 ballots from the 249,985 counted Tuesday.
Ballots had arrived by Wednesday from 24 percent of King County registered voters.
Of course public safety is important. But KC should have checked the other pocket before going after additional taxes. Think of all their spending programs that manage just fine without ballot measures.
ReplyDeleteThe reality is that King County has know for close to a decade that the system needed a major upgrade and modernizing but refused to do so, instead using needed monies for other things. The chiefs and the various KC Sheriffs over the years tried to get the county to face reality but they wouldn't until Motorola pointed out that the system was obsolete. KC kept prioritizing other things that were a lesser essential function and endangered deputies and officers in the region. While encouraging to see the taxpayers approve this, the reality is that KC should have made this a priority years ago and didn't which now leads to KC residents paying more.
ReplyDeleteNo, by voting in the tax increase to compensate for the short shrift emergency preparedness has been getting from our general purpose county government is to positively reinforce that calculated practice. It ensures this deceptive behavior will continue. The governments--all of them--have more than enough of our money. They do.
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