All four proposals pass
Web Posted: 05/11/2008 01:31 AM CDT
Tracy Idell Hamilton
Express-News
By overwhelming margins, Bexar County voters on Saturday committed $415 million in tax revenue to river improvements, sports fields, the arts and a long-term investment in the AT&T Center.
Only a handful of Bexar County voters — about 7 percent — weighed in on the four-proposition ballot to extend what was rebranded “the visitor tax” to emphasize that tourists and business travelers to San Antonio would shoulder the burden.
With 100 percent of precincts reporting, the river proposal won almost 75 percent of the vote, with the amateur athletic fields close behind at nearly 72 percent. The performing arts proposal scored 65 percent, while the community arenas earned almost 57 percent.
The venue tax victory means the county can move forward with plans for a 13-mile linear park along the San Antonio River, begin to address the shortage of amateur and youth sports fields and plan the transformation of the underutilized Municipal Auditorium into a performing arts center.
Benefits to the AT&T Center won't come immediately — until 2012 under the county's timetable — while improvements to the Freeman Coliseum and rodeo grounds will begin soon.
“This is a positive sign for San Antonio,” said County Judge Nelson Wolff, who spearheaded the effort to extend the venue tax. “We believe in our future, we believe in our children, and we believe in making the investment in our quality of life.”
Read entire article
A more thorough description of the four propositions passed yesterday can be found in
this article.
I don't know what y'all think, since there's been surprisingly little discussion of this on this forum (maybe because so many SA forumers, like myself, live somewhere else), but I think these are all good news for SA, especially the river improvements and the conversion of municipal auditorium in to a PAC. Step by step, SA is transforming into a different - and better - city
[SA] All four venue tax proposals pass
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