Commission Discards Two Ballots

Approval Of Road Impact Fees Remains Ahead in Voting

Last updated Friday, April 13, 2007 9:15 PM CDT in News

By Dug Begley
The Morning News

    FAYETTEVILLE -- The results of Fayetteville's road impact fee election remain a one-vote margin for now.

    Friday morning, the Washington County Election Commission rejected two provisional ballots submitted during Tuesday's election, keeping the results 2,015 for the fee, 2,014 against.

    Letters will be sent to the two voters telling them they can appeal the decision at a meeting at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. One of the ballots was filed by a voter not registered to vote in Fayetteville, Washington County Clerk Karen Combs Pritchard said. The other voter was eligible to vote, but cast the provisional ballot at the wrong polling place.

    "The law is the law, and we have to go by that," said election commission Chairman John Logan Burrow.

    The April 10 election will not be certified by the commission until Friday. Burrow said the election commission is awaiting 23 overseas absentee ballots that have until Friday to arrive.

    If the commission upholds the totals, new development in Fayetteville will pay a fee to fund road improvements around the city. The fee will be based on the type of building erected, and paid when the city issues a certificate of occupancy. The road impact fee will apply to any building permits issued after June 30, according to the city ordinance.

    Reader Comments (4 comment(s))


    The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsibility of their authors. The Morning News does not review comments before their publication, nor do we guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by our comment policy. If you see a comment that violates our policy, please notify the web editor.

    Don't vote wrote on Apr 15, 2007 8:47 AM:

    " Government cheats "

    April 15 wrote on Apr 15, 2007 9:42 AM:

    " April 15, that dread Income Tax day, is around again, and gives us a chance to ruminate on the nature of taxes and of the government itself. The first great lesson to learn about taxation is that taxation is simply robbery. No more and no less. For what is "robbery"? Robbery is the taking of a man's property by the use of violence or the threat thereof, and therefore without the victim's consent. And yet what else is taxation? Those who claim that taxation is, in some mystical sense, really "voluntary" should then have no qualms about getting rid of that vital feature of the law which says that failure to pay one's taxes is criminal and subject to appropriate penalty. But does anyone seriously believe that if the payment of taxation were really made voluntary, say in the sense of contributing to the American Cancer Society, that any appreciable revenue would find itself into the coffers of government? Then why don't we try it as an experiment for a few years, or a few decades, and find out? But if taxation is robbery, then it follows as the night the day that those people who engage in, and live off, robbery are a gang of thieves. "

    RK wrote on Apr 16, 2007 5:08 AM:

    " In a sense, people are renting their property from the government and are subject to its whims. Your citizenship is an agreement with the people to follow the laws and pay the fee's that it deems necessary to manage its business. Its not fair for the rest of the citizens to pay for the impact of certain citizens on the theory that we all use those roads...we don't. Its not double taxation to pay for new impacts. The sales tax vote was for fixing past impacts that developers have so far gotten away with...well with this vote they won't anymore. "

    Happy Voter wrote on Apr 17, 2007 2:55 PM:

    " Finally the citzenry of Fayetteville has stood up to the monied powerful and demanded that they begin to pay their fair share! I'm proud for all of us! "


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