Results as of 11:30 p.m. showed 65.73% voting for the bond measure and 34.27% voting against it with all 323 voting centers in the county reporting, in addition to early voting results. Early voting results are based on ballots cast between Oct. 18-29 in addition to mail-in ballots. Unofficial results do not include provisional and absentee ballots.
Reached on election night, Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley noted the roughly two-to-one margin in favor of the bond and said he believes voters saw the importance of it passing.
“We’re very excited that it’s passing,” Whitley said. “I think people realize the impact of transportation on them and they’re supportive of anything that is going to hopefully make congestion less.”
The bond measure—Proposition A on the ballot—is for “purchasing, constructing, reconstructing, renovating, rehabilitating, improving and maintaining streets, roads, highways and bridges within Tarrant County, including city, county and state streets; roads; highways and bridges; and the imposition of a tax sufficient to pay the principal of and interest on the bonds.”
Whitley also noted that the timing was right for Tarrant County, which grew by more than 300,000 residents during the past decade, to issue another transportation bond program, with the last bond program beginning in 2006.
“We’ve just about used up all the dollars that we asked for in the 2006 bond deal and so, with all the stuff that’s going on and the continued growth that we’re encountering here in Tarrant County, we just felt like it was time to go through that again,” he said.
The way the new transportation bond has been structured splits the $400 million into two pots, with $200 million being set aside specifically to fund projects pitched by Tarrant’s cities in April, according to county documents outlining the bond program’s policy.
The projects pitched by the municipalities require a funding match, with the county only able to pay up to 50% of the cost.
The other $200 million, as outlined by the transportation bond program’s policy, is further divided into two more groups. First, there is $125 million dedicated to countywide initiatives and partnerships that are more regional in nature. The remaining $75 million falls under a “discretionary” label. Each member of the court—the four precinct commissioners and the Tarrant County judge—would have $15 million reserved to use at their discretion to be used with court approval.
All results are unofficial until canvassed. The 100,099 ballots cast for the unofficial results represent voter turnout of 8.27%.
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