Madison Picks Posh Pool

Also posted at KELOLand.com!

Get set to get wet -- Madison voters last night approved raising taxes to build a $3.5 million outdoor pool. KJAM provides the vote counts:

• WARD 1: YES-371 NO-198
• WARD 2: YES-233 NO-97
• WARD 3: YES-144 NO-75
• GRAND TOTAL: YES-748 (66.9%) NO-370 (33.1%)
• 1118 Total Votes (23.9% turnout)

Those results outpaced even the favorable results of the Madville Times poll, which went 57% in favor, 37% opposed (thanks for your input!). City residents will thus see their property tax assessment increase $1.60 for every $1000 of value. That means the owner of a $100,000 home (yes, my out-of-state friends, we still have houses that price here) will pay $160 more each year for the next several years (oops! I lost track of the term of the bond issue -- help me out, commenters!).

This result marks an interested change of spending inclination from the last city vote back in April, when city voters rejected both the $10 million* bond issue for the new gym and even the transfer of a relatively measly $100,000 from the city electric fund to the school district. Turnout was lower this time around -- just under 24% compared to 32% in April. Pool supporters did not spend nearly as much time or money campaigning as the new gym planners -- pro-pool yard signs did not spring up all over town, stores weren't carrying pro-pool flyers, no website advocating for the pool materialized. The pool plan also didn't elicit the same level of vocal opposition that the new gym did. With less buzz on either side, lower voter turnout seems predictable. Plus there wasn't quite as much money at stake. But all three wards still produced solid 2/3 majorities in favor of the proposal.

Still, the new pool will cost city taxpayers more than the new gym would have (athletic supporters projected $88.60 per $100,000 house). What happened? There are few signs of new infusions of wealth into the community in the last six months. Arctic Cat announced its closing last month, casting a damper on our economic outlook. And Madisonites burned up most of their spare change buying blizzards last August. What made Madison voters change their minds?

We submit the following speculation, and welcome more from you, dear readers:

1. The soft sell: maybe the laid-back, low-cost campaign strategy still works in Madison. (Ah, but the 2006 Olson campaign counters that.)
2. Perceived need: the new gym proposal came a dozen or so years after the school district built the big middle school gym. The stands are crowded (for really big games), and someone didn't make the floor quite the right dimensions, but the kids can still get out there and play their games. The current outdoor pool is 50 years old and failing. It had to be closed early this summer for maintenance. Kids have the indoor pool at the community center, but summer is time to be outside.
3. Serving more users: the new gym was being built primarily so more folks could sit and watch others play game. And only a handful of kids can play basketball at one time. The new pool will accommodate more actual users. Skinny kids like me don't get to hit the court until the fourth quarter of a blowout, but we can still do a mean cannonball, just like all the other kids.

We hope the city gets construction done quickly. Kids will have to wait a summer while the old pool is torn up and the new pool built in its place. They can still swim at the community center, but they may have just as much fun watching the big machines do their thing or riding out to the lake for a real country dip. But in a couple summers, whoo-hoo! The kids will have a new fancy pool to bring all their out-of-town cousins to. That's Madison, your soon-to-be swimming mecca!

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Update: archived results of the Madville Times pool poll -- "Madison voters go to the polls Tuesday, Oct. 16, to decide whether to spend $3.5M to build a new outdoor pool. Should voters support building a new pool?"

• "Yes! In the pool if you're cool!" 15 votes
• "No -- build something cheaper, or fix the old one" 9 votes
• "No -- go jump in the lake!" 1 vote
• "What -- there's an election?" 1 vote
  

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*The new gym bond issue was for $5.9 million, but analysis of the data presented by the supporters showed that the overall cost, principal and interest, coming out of taxpayers pockets was just under $10 million.