Parks and Libraries Prevail

It’s been about a week since we voted and the two issues of considerable interest to Point Roberts have now been decided, although the totals are still unofficial.  The Parks Board request for a levy was approved, but that vote also required that  the turnout in this election be at least 40% of the turnout in the last general election and that of those voting, at least 60% had to approve the levy request.  Given that the last general election was a presidential election, these requirements could have been hard to meet.  Indeed, for the levy to pass, at least 278 people had to vote.  In fact, only 303 people voted, just 31 more than were required.  However, the ‘Yes’ vote was well over the 60% requirement—76+%.  This levy involves an additional $.07/$1,000 assessed value.

The other issue was the ‘Rural Library Proposition No. 1.’  Fortunately, this measure required only a 50% approval rate.  This applied to more than Point Roberts, so it was a much larger vote: a total of 34,581, and 51.41% voted to approve the additional rural library funding.  It's good news for the library, and only slightly more than ten cents additional tax per $1,000 assessment.  (Thus, a house assessed at $200,000 will pay an additional property tax of about $20.40 each year.)   Encouraging news for our services. 

Results for all the Whatcom County election results are available here.