When it comes to getting ballot measures passed, local politicos may need to consider the bliss factor.
A recent poll commissioned by Pitkin County and conducted by Frederick Polls of Arlington, Va., found that 65 percent of active voters in the county rate the “overall quality of life” in the county as “excellent” and another 34 percent rate it as “good.”
That means 99 percent of local voters are pretty happy campers, which surprised a veteran pollster.
“The quality of life (number) is just whacky,” said Keith Frederick of Frederick Polls on Tuesday as he presented the poll results to the Pitkin County commissioners. “There are hardly any communities in the U.S. that have that kind of favorable rating.”
Given that, he advised the commissioners that the right strategy to get ballot measures passed is to talk more about “keeping a good thing going” and less about “change.”
“It’s ‘enhancing,’ not ‘changing,’ when you have this kind of environment,” Frederick said.
The pollster also told the commissioners that the two questions they are considering placing on the ballot this fall have pretty solid support.
One question would ask voters to approve a property tax increase worth $8 million a year to improve county roads, including safety upgrades at several intersections, resurfacing roads to keep them from falling apart, improving shoulders on roads to improve safety and accommodate bicyclists, and stabilizing slopes to prevent rockfall.
Fifty-seven percent of the voters who answered the telephone survey said they would support such a measure and 38 percent said they would not.
Frederick said the 57 percent figure was a “comfortable cushion” to go forward with such a question.
The survey also found that if a more modest property tax was proposed, one that would generate $5.4 million a year but not fix or improve roads as fast, it would have support from 68 percent of voters.
“You have a decent amount of people to allow you to go for the whole enchilada,” Frederick said.
The poll also found that 58 percent of voters would support a tenth of a percent increase in the local sales tax to fund a county water fund to “maintain and improve water quality and quantity.”
On the other hand, Frederick said that when people are as happy as they are in Pitkin County, you have to work to convince them that it is necessary to invest in projects such as keeping county roads in good shape or keeping water in the local rivers.
“Three-quarters of the people think they are just ducky right now,” Frederick said about the local roads.
The county commissioners said they need to work to fine-tune the best number to ask voters for regarding local roads, but agreed it was probably somewhere between the $8 million and $5.4 million annual figure.
Noting that 63 percent of the voters feel that the county government responsibly spends taxpayer money, Frederick said that “the voters trust you to ask for what you need.”
He also noted that about 25 percent of county voters feel that taxes are already too high.
“You only have a quarter of the people in this county who are curmudgeons,” said Frederick, who was then advised that such a statement would likely be quoted in the local paper.
“They know who they are,” Frederick quickly replied. “They’ll be proud of it.”
bgs@aspendailynews.com
