In October, Iredell County voters approved school and community college bonds by a 2/1 margin. Ironically, a few weeks later, Mecklenburg County voters defeated a school bond issue.

The difference in the vote by geographic area was striking. In New Hope precinct (North Iredell), only 25 percent voted in favor of the bonds; in three of the Davidson precincts (Lake Norman area), over 87 percent voted in favor.

The bonds lost in all six North Iredell precincts and in one precinct in East Iredell. The vote in West Iredell was almost evenly divided. The bonds (tax increase) passed by a wide margin in the Statesville precincts and by an even greater margin in South Iredell.

Bond supporters raised $35,187. Over 82 percent came from corporations, according to reports filed with the county Board of Elections (See article page 2). Bond opponents only raised $2,320, all of which was donated by individuals.

The resources and personnel of the school systems and community college were aggressively employed to promote passage of the bond. This activity was, in effect, an “in-kind” campaign contribution worth tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars. Many have questioned the legality of using public, tax-paid resources to promote one side of a contested political issue.

The week before the referendum, the Record & Landmark ran a series of front-page articles decrying the allegedly substandard conditions at various schools. These items were pro-bond campaign ads, thinly disguised as news stories. It would have cost at least $15,000 to purchase the advertising space devoted to these pro-bond “news” articles.

Counting the value of the campaigning by the school system and the free advertising donated by the Record & Landmark, the pro-bond campaign outspent the opponents by at least 30 or 40 to one.

The massive pro-bond (tax increase) campaign yielded a little over ten-thousand votes in favor of the bonds. The “yes” voters comprised 12.6 percent of the county’s 82,000 registered voters. The total turnout (those voting both for and against the bonds) was less than 19 percent. Over four out of every five registered voters did not go to the polls at all.

Prior to the October 11 vote, the last contested school bond referendum was held in 1993. Those bonds, which would have required a much larger tax increase than the recent issue, were defeated by a 55/45 margin. (A relatively small bond referendum, which did not require a tax increase, easily passed in 1996. There was no organized opposition.)

In the 1993 referendum, about eight-thousand citizens voted for the bonds, or about 16 percent of the 50,000 who were registered to vote at the time. About ten-thousand voted “no”. Total turnout was around 35 percent of the registered voters.

The number of pro-bond (tax increase) voters was not much larger in 2005 than in 1993 . As a percentage of registered voters, it was actually less. The difference between the passage of one bond issue and the defeat of the other was that in 1993 ten-thousand citizens went to the polls and voted “no”, whereas last October only half that number did so.

Except for municipal elections in Statesville and Mooresville, the bonds were the only issue on the October 11 ballot. Most citizens did not even know a vote was being held that day.

Despite its biased coverage, readers of the Record & Landmark were at least aware of the referendum. But that newspaper’s circulation is only 15,000 in a county of 130,000 citizens and 80,000 registered voters.

We talked to dozens of people who vote in general elections but who did not know the bond referendum was being held. Others told us the only reason they were aware of the bond election was that they read about it in the Boone Report.

Few things can be predicted with near certainty, but one is this: No matter how much money school officials get, they will always want more. They have already announced their intention to request another bond in a couple of years.

Even before the October 11 referendum, Iredell’s per-capita debt was well above the state average. Due to a healthy industrial tax base, the county’s tax rate is still below average. But per-capita property taxes are near the state average.

If voters continue to pass bond issues, Iredell will move into the ranks of high-taxed counties and will incur a dangerously high debt load. Such a fate can be averted only if more of the conservative, tax-paying citizens inform themselves and vote in future bond referenda.