Nay Say Valley Voters Are Tough Sells When It Comes To Proposals For Government, Funding

Some people call New Orleans the Big Easy. Popular opinion has it that a person can get anything - anything - he or she wants there.

In a political sense, the Spokane Valley has become the Big Difficult.

For the past five or six years, advocates of various political causes haven’t been able to get anything from Valley voters except a big fat no.

The Valley has become the place where bond issues and local government reform proposals go to die.

The evidence? Since 1980, Valley voters have scuttled more than a dozen school bond proposals.

They’ve shot down three attempts to form their own city and laid waste a plan to combine city and county governments.

The Valley electorate also voted against the single sewer system that would have covered both the city and county and rejected a plan to expand the board of county commissioners to five members.

So what makes Valley voters harder to crack than a Brazil nut?

The answer is being sought by school superintendents desperate for more classrooms and activists trying to design a better form of local government.

They need the answer fast.

The three Valley school districts - East Valley, Central Valley and West Valley - have construction bond proposals on the Feb. 6 ballot, as does the Spokane County Library District.

Three separate groups are mounting incorporation drives which could see elections this year.

Opinions among political observers vary widely as to the Valley’s reputation as the Big Difficult.

Some say it’s just a matter of Valley residents being suspicious of any kind of government.

“The Valley is very anti-government, period,” political consultant and 30-year Valley resident Kate McCaslin said after November’s failed consolidation vote. “People here just want to be left alone.”

There may be some truth to that, said Steve Hasson, county commissioner and Valley resident.

“Right now, there seems to be an overwhelming distrust of government out there,” Hasson said.

But the commissioner said the Valley electorate’s sour mood also may be tied to a feeling of uncertainty about the future. People are scared to vote yes, he said.

The economy is shaky, with many businesses laying off workers to save money, Hasson said.

When a person is scared about where his next paycheck is coming from, he’s not going to be inclined to support a bond issue, he said.

And when political activists annually roll out a plan that would drastically alter the political landscape - like incorporation and consolidation - voters become overwhelmed, he said.

“I think they’ve got a case of the jitters,” the commissioner said. “Right now, the Valley is without time frame and predictability. What have we had, five evaluations of the government format in the last five years?

“It’s unsettling. I think that spills over to the bond issues as well.”

Larry Hartley, a Valley resident and tax reform activist, said the Valley hasn’t always been as cynical as it is now.

Government, especially recently, has made it that way, Hartley said.

He pointed to several examples where local officials said they were going to do one thing with tax money and then did something else, like in the mid-1980s when county commissioners channeled sewer money into the general fund.

“Once you trick people, they become very leery,” said Hartley, who campaigned last year for Initiative 650, which would have rolled back state property taxes. “All the governments combined have bred this malcontent.”

Valley political observer Denny Ashlock disagreed.

Ashlock said the Valley’s seeming intransigence is just a matter of voters being given bad choices.

The costs of the last dozen school bonds have just been too high, Ashlock said, and the government reform proposals too murky.

He points to the fact that fire district levies almost always pass in the Valley as evidence that given a good option, Valley voters will support you.

So what can be done about it?

Almost everyone agreed that persistence, education and communication were the keys to success.

Hartley urged the school districts to hold more community forums and to take more surveys to gauge public opinion.

Put several choices on the table and see which one is getting the support, then put that one on the ballot, Hartley said.

Oh, yes, and pare down the request, he added.

“If they really want this money from us, be honest. Give us some options,” Hartley said. “And remember, we’re not buying the Cadillac anymore.”

Ashlock agreed.

“I think they want a reasonable cost, and I think they want to understand where the money’s going,” he said. “Bare bones is the way to go.”

Hasson advised the school districts, incorporation campaigners and others to just keep trying.

He pointed to the fact that the recently passed juvenile justice tax failed at the polls twice.

“You’ve just got to keep trying different angles,” Hasson said. “Just keeping trying different angles until the public connects.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos (1 color)