Local election officials on Thursday began the task of implementing a special November election on behalf of Muncie Community Schools.
The Nov. 5 special election — held in a year which otherwise has no city- or countywide elections — will ask local voters to decide on a new property tax rate, in effect for seven years, that would increase bills by 39 cents per $100 of assessed value and raise more than $6 million for MCS transportation and other costs
.The three-member election board — County Clerk Steve Craycraft, Democratic Party representative Denise Moore and county Republican Party Chairman Will Statom — established voting places and staffing for the election as well as absentee voting in advance of Nov. 5. The officials acknowledged that Thursday’s meeting
won’t be their last.“As things come up, we’ll have to have meetings
,” Craycraft said.“That’s because this is uncharted waters,” Moore said.
Mark Burkhart, MCS chief financial
officer, attended Thursday’s meeting and said the process, so far, was “going as expected. That’s my perception.”One thing that isn’t yet known: The final price tag for the election, which will be paid for by the school
system. Craycraft estimated a possible cost of $40,000.During the meeting, election board members tried to estimate how much interest there would be in the election. The number of voters who come out to decide on the transportation property tax — a separate issue from potential school building consolidation, a topic that generated heartfelt comments in a public forum on Wednesday — will either be handled by or will overwhelm the polling places.
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