Neighborhood Gazette: Do we know what the total amount that the city is considering asking voters for? I hear 130 million dollars for various projects. How close is that?
Councilwoman Hultin: On April 11, City Council and staff participated in a full day workshop to prioritize investments for a 10 Year Capital Program and to get acquainted with possible funding options, ranging from sales tax to mill levies to use taxes and fees. We also discussed fiscal stewardship through budget tightening and bonding against future revues. We expect long term success will require a well-crafted combination, decided in partnership with our community.
The 10 Year Capital investments council is considering have all been identified as important by our community including one-time projects — replacing the outdoor swimming pool, acquiring school properties, and investing in city facilities — as well as ongoing infrastructure maintenance such as storm water and streets.
While over the course of 10+ years, these projects and programs will cost over $150M, we can only move forward with priorities and funding supported by our community. Council directed staff to conduct polling in May to help us understand our voters’ awareness of these needs, clarify their priorities, and their support for various funding options. Based on the polling results and a month-long community engagement initiative in July, Council will decide next steps which could be a ballot initiative if our voters are supportive or we could decide more community outreach in needed.
Neighborhood Gazette: Do you think the questions will be worded as to convince or sell the initiatives? Or are you asking them to be neutral?
Councilwoman Hultin: Thanks for asking about the polling questions. For any polling to be useful, it needs to be conducted by a trusted, reputable polling firm which is why the city is hiring Magellan Strategies who we used for both 2J and for the Lutheran Campas ballot questions. Magellan will craft the questions. Biased, leading questions are not in anyone’s interest; what we need is an accurate snapshot of our voter’s understanding of the city’s needs and their level of support to address those needs. It’s standard practice for this type of polling to measure how voters respond after becoming more informed about issues, so we anticipate the polling methodology to include an assessment of how support changes with additional information.
