Expansion of jail is approved in Davis

FARMINGTON — Early election results in Davis County showed voters on their way to approving a $24.8 million bond to expand the county jail and rejecting a proposal to take fluoride out of the water.

Republican candidates were handily ahead of Democrats, and voters were mostly turning against tax increases, according to early returns. Kaysville voters were saying no to two bond proposals that would have built a new library and a public swimming pool, the city's first.

The jail bond was headed for approval, while the recreation, arts and parks (RAP) tax was headed toward defeat and voters appeared willing to to keep fluoride in the water.

A much heavier voter turnout than normal caused the Davis County Clerk/Auditor's Office to be more than an hour behind in beginning to count votes. Some precincts still had people in the voting booths as late as an hour and a half after the polls closed.

Davis voters were overwhelmingly in favor of state constitutional Amendment 1, Amendment 2 and the controversial Amendment 3, whcih would ban same-sex marriage in Utah.

Davis voters stayed true to their Republican leanings with a large majority voting a straight GOP ticket and less than one-fourth voting a straight Democratic ticket. Early results showed the Bush-Cheney ticket well ahead. Fluoride remained the hottest political topic in Davis County Tuesday as both sides campaigned down to the wire to persuade voters to keep or take fluoride out of the water with hundreds of yard signs throughout the county.

The Davis County Jail bond, a $24.8 million general obligation bond to expand the jail, attracted less attention in the final weeks leading up to Tuesday and even those opposing it, such as the Utah Taxpayers Association and Citizens for Tax Fairness, either reluctantly supported it or kept quiet about it, in the case of the Utah Taxpayers Association.

Davis County had more tax proposals than any other county in the state this year, according to Mike Jerman, vice president of the Utah Taxpayers Association. His group agreed with the County Commission that providing a jail is a core function of county government, and while the association didn't oppose the jail bond, it wouldn't support it because of the many tax issues facing Davis County residents.

The countywide recreation, arts and parks tax, which would have added one-tenth of 1 percent to the county sales tax, also received little attention from organized groups, except the taxpayers association, which opposed it but did not spend any money to defeat it.

The race for a county commission seat between Clearfield Councilman Alan Hansen and former Clinton City Councilman Chris Martinez was going to Hansen. By the end of Monday, Martinez had spent $2,848 and Hansen had spent $11,230 on their races.

Kaysville residents voted on two separate bonds to build a new library and a swimming pool. The library bond is for $4.35 million, and the swimming pool bond is for $3.5 million. Both bonds would be paid off in 15 years and add $52.25 per year per $100,000 assessed valuation for homeowners.

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E-mail: lweist@desnews.com

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