Registered voters in Cook County will begin receiving mail ballots in mid- October that will allow them to vote in this fall’s referendum on collecting an optional 1 percent sales tax. Legislation has authorized Cook County to collect the tax for 20 years and raise a maximum of $20 million, provided Cook County voters approve of the tax in a referendum held before Dec. 31. Money raised by the tax would be used to fund a number of programs designed to strengthen Cook County community life.
The ballot will contain two questions. The first is on collecting the 1 percent sales tax itself. To pass, this requires a simple majority of 50 percent plus one of those voting on the question.
The second question asks whether Cook County should build a telephone system as part of its broadband project. Thismay confuse some voters.
The broadband project has always involved offering three services to Cook County homes, businesses and public agencies: television, ultra high-speed Internet and telephone service. Because the telephone service would be publicly owned, state law requires that voters approve it. To pass, this question must get at least 65 percent “yes” votes. That is a very high hurdle.
Those working on the broadband project have been warned that voters may be subjected to an intense disinformation campaign in the weeks before the vote. Along with newspaper ads and letters to the editor, groups from outside Cook County may show up to knock on doors and tell voters why a county owned broadband system, and particularly a county owned telephone system, are bad ideas.
We hope this disinformation campaign does not happen. But if it does, voters should be wary of the claims made against the broadband initiative. In other Minnesota communities that have sought voter approval for broadband, the claims by these outside hired guns have gone beyond the line separating truth from falsehood. Cook County voters might ask the doorknockers where they are from and who is paying them. They might also ask: If the county does not build its proposed broadband system, when might all of Cook County reasonably expect to be connected via fiber optic cable to a system that provides reliable telephone service, television with significant local programming and ultra high-speed broadband?
Jim Boyd
Grand Marais
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