Escambia Count Option Tax Extended

As reported today in the Pensacola News Journal, the 1 cent option sales tax for our county has been extended. (I apologize to those of my readers who don’t live in Escambia County. You may find, however, that you have a similar situation with your local government.)

My big interest in this story is not in the simple event, though I voted in favor of continuing the tax. You would hardly come to my blog for breaking local news. But there was an interesting statistic in the story that I want to underline. The tax won with 64% of the vote. But get this–that 64% of the vote was amongst 20% of Escambia County voters. Only 1 out of 5 local voters chose to get out and vote on this issue. The tax will raise approximately $380 million for the county over the next ten years. In our local budget that’s hardly inconsequential. It’s a 1% charge on everything you buy. Don’t you care?

Now I’m willing to bet that it won’t be just 1 in 5 Escambia County voters who will be complaining over the next 10 years. I’m guessing there will be lots more. They’re going to talk about local government corruption, about excess taxes and lack of public services, all at the same time. They’re not going to ask where the money will come from to fund those services. When it was time to actually make a decision, to exercise just a tiny bit of responsibility (it took me less than 5 minutes all told to vote), they didn’t have the time or the energy.

Some of those voters will show up when “important” things are at issue, like candidates for congress, or the presidency, or a well-publicized state-wide vote. But they just aren’t interested in taking responsibility for local issues. I once heard a political strategist speak to some activists and he said that you don’t have to investigate to find out whether local government is corrupt. It is. He said just to go make a “sunshine law” request from any department you want to, and you’re going to find problems. He’s probably right.

But the reason that can be true is simply that people don’t get involved in local issues. It’s not that they have no interest. They will complain plenty about county roads, local education, police protection, and other local issues.

But at least here in Escambia County, when it was time to make a decision about how to fund those services, only one in five could be bothered to mark one ballot.

For shame!