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Troy Officials Bitter Over TDD Loss [Sep 4, 2006]
An article in this week's LCJ addressses the most recent defeat of the TDD tax and quotes people on both sides of the issue. The two Troy officials quoted, Kerry Klump (Troy Chamber of Commerce Director) and Mayor Kemper (TDD Director and Troy Mayor) both come off somewhat bitter over the results. Ms. Klump had this to say in the article; "We're extremely frustrated and dissapointed in the attitude that road improvements aren't needed. "Obviously, people want us to go back to the days of gravel roads." Whoa, Tonto. Is someone a little bitter? Mayor Kemper seemed only slightly bitter saying "This was an opporuntity to make some significant improvements" and going on to say that city funds may be able to fund some road improvements but Troy doesn't have the money to do what the TDD would have done. Carol Wessel,a main opponent of the tax along with her husband, is also quoted in the article. She called the vote a "victory for the little guys" and went on to elaborate on why she encouraged people to vote against the tax. One reason was that there wouldn't be much oversight over the funds. With a TDD, voters approve the funds, but then the TDD board makes the decisions on what to do.
To me it seems that Ms. Klump especially has the wrong idea of why voters shot down the tax. The voters aren't saying they don't want road improvements, they definitely do. Most are saying that they already pay road taxes, why pay even more because we can't get MODOT to pony up for the project. I wasn't one of the 199 people eligible to vote on the issue, so I didn't see all of the material for or against the issue. I did however monitor newspaper reports on the subject as well as keep my ears open for talk on the subject. I encouraged people to vote in favor of this tax both in this blog and in conversation. My main theory as to why this failed points to the poor job the main proponents of the TDD did getting the community behind it. Seeing a mockup of what the area would look like after the improvements would have done wonders. Seeing more hard numbers on how much Troy would benefit from the tax would have swayed some people. Instead, what I got was "Here. Vote Yes on this 'cause we need it." This stance alienated alot of voters who didn't want to pay an extra 1% for a plan they knew too little about.
In short, Troy officials can't blame the voters for voting this down. They instead need to look for an alternative plan and have a decent campaign to get voters behind it.
To me it seems that Ms. Klump especially has the wrong idea of why voters shot down the tax. The voters aren't saying they don't want road improvements, they definitely do. Most are saying that they already pay road taxes, why pay even more because we can't get MODOT to pony up for the project. I wasn't one of the 199 people eligible to vote on the issue, so I didn't see all of the material for or against the issue. I did however monitor newspaper reports on the subject as well as keep my ears open for talk on the subject. I encouraged people to vote in favor of this tax both in this blog and in conversation. My main theory as to why this failed points to the poor job the main proponents of the TDD did getting the community behind it. Seeing a mockup of what the area would look like after the improvements would have done wonders. Seeing more hard numbers on how much Troy would benefit from the tax would have swayed some people. Instead, what I got was "Here. Vote Yes on this 'cause we need it." This stance alienated alot of voters who didn't want to pay an extra 1% for a plan they knew too little about.
In short, Troy officials can't blame the voters for voting this down. They instead need to look for an alternative plan and have a decent campaign to get voters behind it.
