Printable VersionEarly voter turnout is expectedly down this election round compared to last year, and it’s hard to tell how many voters will show up to the polls to face three ballot questions, county voting officials say.
Stewart said county officials have been processing an average of 80 to 100 early voting ballots daily. Early voting ended Oct. 30. For the 2008 presidential general election, officials were processing up to 250 daily.
“We have people that only vote every four years,” Stewart said. “They don’t even think about the (other) elections, even though we inform people. We are constantly letting people know, but some people don’t care unless it’s a presidential, which surprises me because this election affects your pocket personally.”
Here’s a look at the items voters will face Tuesday:
Transient Occupancy Tax
Voters decide if the transient occupancy tax, or the hotel tax, should increase 1 percent from 3 percent to 4 percent. The tax is only added to hotel, motel and other lodging rates.
The 1 percent increase is expected to generate $225,000, according to the Lake Havasu Area Chamber of Commerce.
The Convention and Visitor’s Bureau currently receives about 75 percent of the hotel tax funding, which the majority goes to advertising the city. The CVB received $567,529 last fiscal year, which ended in June, down from $727,407 received during the year before.
Lake Havasu Unified School District Overrides
Lake Havasu Unified School District officials are asking voters to extend both of the budget overrides that were passed in a 2005 spring election for the next seven years.
State law allows districts to ask voters to allow the district to exceed their state-funded budgets by up to 10 percent for seven years through property taxes. Funding is cut by one-third annually during the last three years of the seven-year period.
If the upcoming overrides do not pass, the district will face its first one-third budget cut from the 2005 override passage next year, which will subtract almost $1 million from the district’s bottom line.
If both overrides pass, the expected revenue generation is $3.9 million.
• The first ballot question asks voters to increase the maintenance and operation budget, the largest portion of the district’s budget, which funds primarily salaries, by 10 percent.
Estimated tax rate to fund the full override is $0.38 and equals an annual tax of $78.94 on $209,060 full cash value home.
• The second question asks voters to increase the maintenance and operation budget — specifically for kindergarten through third grade — by 5 percent.
Estimated tax rate to fund the full override is $0.12 and equals an annual tax of $24.10 on a $209,060 full cash value home.
Residents vote on each override separately.
Since the 2005 override, every school in the district has improved its state education labels, which are primarily based on students’ state test scores.
LHUSD Superintendent Gail Malay previously told Today’s News-Herald that the overrides dollars were used to add academic coaches at the elementary schools, allowed the district to continue using reading interventionists and provided for additional full-day kindergarten classes.
You may contact the reporter at jleatherman@havasunews.com.
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