OK, It Passed 3:1 Now What?

According to today's Gazette story,

Jones said he wasn’t really surprised with the results because he did some
polling on the issue last December. People’s attitudes on the fee tended to
correspond with their feelings toward him as mayor, he said.
“The places where I did strongest it did better. A person who is not in favor of my administration did not like the fee,” Jones said. “I would hope the fee would carry every precinct but my strength would be in the hills. We would be weaker in the flats.”

Always the astute political observer, Mayor Jones. Of course it just might be that for people in "the flats" this fee represent a whole lot more to them than those in "the hills." Except for Kanawha City, median income in "the flats"is about $20,000. The fee for those folks represent about a one-quarter of a percent tax. The median income in "the hills" is probably well over $100,000, which means the tax rate for them is less than .052%. Not surprising then how people voted. Disproportionate taxation, when it favors the wealthy, usually gets the vote out in South Hills.

Now what? Here's my prediction. Mayor Jones said last night on Channel 11 news that he definitely would not seek an increase "in this term" as mayor. When the anchor pointed out he only had one year left in his term the mayor quickly corrected him saying "eleven months." In the paper he is quoted as saying “ I don’t know what will happen next year. Fees do go up.”

I would listen for noises about raising the fee to at least $2 in about twelve and a half months.