The Tax Man runneth away.

OK, so voters in the Bentonville School District rejected the millage vote by what some are saying is a significant margin. I'll be the first to say that I'm not surprised it didn't pass, and I'll also be the first to blame the school board for what appeared to be a rather lame effort in publicizing the election in the first place. I'll take it a step further and say that because of the way the proposed millage was structured, there may not now be funds available to shore up some dilapidated facilities that our kids will be using. Should we have been forced to accept a new high school (whether you're in favor of one or not) in order to raise money for needed repairs and improvements to other facilities? There were plenty of things in the pot for our kids, and now it's unlikely to happen because this was an all or none election.

How many times were you approached by someone "official" about the election? I was approached once, and that was thanks to a form letter from Gary Compton to let me know of a "town hall" type meeting to mobilize those who would carry the banner. How many commercials did you see? How many newspaper ads did you see? How many direct mailings were there? I saw a few signs in a few yards, proclaiming a need to "End Overcrowding" on March 11th. People get out to vote for people, not issues, and having this millage election as a stand-alone event was a fatal mistake in my judgment, especially in a presidential election cycle when you have a presidential primary, primaries and non-partisan judicial elections in May, and a general election in November. I haven't looked into it, but it would have been better to piggy-back onto something more glamorous, such as the Benton County Sheriff's race.

Going back to the drawing board is not going to work. These people need to get a bigger drawing board and actually draw on it.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not bitter it didn't pass. I'm just tired of the belly-aching. If you're going to have a successful election, you have to campaign successfully. As far as I can tell, the campaign stayed home.