Twenty-one votes.
That’s how close last week’s referendum on a half-cent sales tax to raise money for Kewanee street repairs was.
In an election where the turnout was very low, there were 489 “no” votes to 468 “yes” votes on the referendum.
“I think we could have done more” to get the vote out on the referendum, Mayor Gary Moore said.
Moore said he has spoken with a number of people since the election, and some weren’t aware of the issues surrounding the street tax vote.
“I think if we had gotten them involved, it would have made a big difference,” the mayor said.
City officials put together a fact sheet on the need for more money for street repairs and on the impact of the proposed tax increase on Kewanee residents. City Manager Gary Bradley said the fact sheet was posted on the city’s website, but apparently not enough people saw it.
Moore said he’s “not giving up hope” that another street tax referendum would be successful.
“I eventually would like to get it on the ballot again,” the mayor said. But he added that he doesn’t know if the question will be placed on the general election ballot in November, which should have a much higher turnout than last week’s primary.
Some people apparently questioned whether the sales tax revenue would really go for street projects. Bradley pointed out that the referendum question on the ballot made it clear that the money could only be spent on street maintenance.
He said city officials estimated that the additional sales tax would have cost Kewanee residents around $100 to $200 a year. The tax would have expired after 10 years unless another referendum were passed at that time.
Bradley said a look at the precinct-by-precinct results “tells a little bit of a story too.”
For instance, Kewanee Precincts 1 and 2, which are the northwest and west edges of the city, strongly voted “no.” So did Wethersfield Precinct 2, which covers the southwest corner of the city.
Kewanee Precincts 1 and 2 have comparatively lower-income households, while some of the highest-income households in the city are in Wethersfield Precinct 2,
“The center of the city supported the tax,” Bradley said.
He said he has heard some people ask why grant funds the city received in the wake of the COVID pandemic weren’t used on street repairs. He said the grant rules specified how that money could be spent, and street repairs weren’t one of the permitted uses,
City officials said before the election that passing the referendum would have enabled the city to set up a street maintenance program. Some of the $800,000 the tax would have raised each year could have been used to pay off bond issues, which would have enabled the city to take on major street programs right away.
Right now, the city uses some $660,000 in Motor Fuel Tax funds it receives each year on its annual summer street improvement program. Passing the referendum would have more than doubled the amount of money available for the repairs.
