Dimensions of Community Conflict in Voting on Local Tax Proposals: Stadiums and School Funding

• Date: 01 December 2001
• Published date: 01 December 2001
• Author: Lynn W. Bachelor
• DOI: 10.1177/0160323X0103300303
• Subject Matter: General Interest

185Fall 2001

State an d Local Government Review

Vol. 33, No. 3 (Fall 2001): 185–94

VOTING IN REFERENDA on tax increases

provides citizens with an oppor-

tunity to express their frustration

with government policies and to support

projects that may benefit their communities

or their own self-interest. In May 1998, vot-

ers in Toledo–Lucas County, Ohio, were

faced with two such ballot propositions:

(1) state Issue 2, a one-cent increase in the

state sales tax to increase funding for pub-

lic schools and provide property tax relief

and (2) county Issue 9, a 35-month, quarter-

cent sales tax increase (in Lucas County

only) that would have raised $37 million for

construction of a new downtown stadium

for the

To l e d o

Mud Hens minor league

base

ball team and a water park at the

county

recreation cente r in suburban Mau-

mee. Research on issue voting in lo cal elec-

tions has suggested several explanatory

models relat

ing to self-interest, socioe co-

nomic status,

community conflict, and the

“alienated voter.”

Analysis of voting patterns

in the Lucas County stadium and school

tax referenda suggests a community con-

flict model: sig

nificant city-suburban differ-

ences influenced

the stadium project, and

significant racial differences affected the

school funding reform proposal.

Dimensions of Community Conflict in

Vo t i n g o n Local Tax Proposals:

Stadiums and School Funding

Lyn n W. Ba che lor

Sports and Schools in

State and Local Politics

Issue 9: The Stadium Tax

The

To l e d o

Mud Hens, the AAA affiliate of

the Detroit Tigers, have played in Ned Skel-

don Stadium (a converted race track in Mau-

mee, a suburb of Toledo) since 1965.

Because the team is owned by a nonprofit

corporation based in Lucas County, it does

not have access to large amounts of private

capital and is not particularly mobile (that is,

the county would be unlikely to sell its inter-

est to an owner who intended to move the

team out of the Toledo area). From the view-

point of local government officials, construc-

tion of a new downtown stadium would po-

tentially boost Mud Hens attendance and

revitalize a deteriorating section of the cen-

tral business district

—

a win-win situation,

despite the limited direct economic benefits

of such projects (see Thielen 1997).

The drive for a new stadium began in 1997

with the publication of a report that high-

lighted the deficiencies of the old stadium

and the benefits of a new downtown facility

(

To l e d o

Regional Sports Facility Committee

1997). Articles in the local media descr ibed

the benefits that other midwestern cities had