The Juneau voters have spoken — again. The majority have voted no on a bond issue desired and pushed by the Juneau Assembly, for the second year in a row.
The no vote was 3,789. Yes votes totaled 3,395 as of the numbers released on Friday evening by the Juneau election office.
The Assembly had earlier this year approved a $50,000 appropriation for the city to use to try to lobby voters to approve the ballot measure that city leaders want. The cost of the building was estimated to be in excess of $43 million.
Recently, property owners had seen significant increases to the property assessments by the city assessor, driving property taxes higher and making some residents feel the city was punishing them for voting against building the city hall last year.
Others observed that the upkeep of the existing city hall appears to have been ignored, including a deteriorated exterior paint on the building that lends it a particularly slummy look.
Final results will be posted once the Canvass Review Board and Election Official certify the election on Oct. 17. At this writing, there are an estimated 1,500 ballots yet to be counted, but the trend is going against the bond measure. The election on the city hall question started with a no-vote advantage of 127 votes, and that has expanded to a 394-vote advantage as of Friday.
