A proposition to increase the millage rate for the Mid-America Technology Center District’s building fund from 1 mill to 4 mills was overwhelmingly rejected by voters during a special election Tuesday.
The proposition was defeated nearly three to one, with 4,167 votes, or 75.15%, against the increase and 1,378 votes, or 24.85%, in favor of the increase.
Had the increase been approved, the district said it would have been used to build a second campus in the northern part of the district, between Blanchard and Newcastle. District leaders have said a north campus would have better served students at its larger schools which are more than 30 miles from the existing campus in Wayne, and that the second campus would also have freed up seats for additional students to be served at the existing campus. It also would have increased property taxes in the district by an estimated $66 per $100,000 of assessed value.
“We are pleased with the turnout and disappointed with the outcome, but it doesn’t change what we do here every day,” MATC Superintendent Mike Eubank said Wednesday.
The outcome of Tuesday’s election was decisive, and Eubank said he does not foresee the district putting a similar proposition back on the ballot in the near future.
“We’ll continue to move forward with the direction the voters have given us. We do great things at our campus here in Wayne, and we’ll continue to do those things.”
Voters across the technology center’s district, which includes all of Garvin and McClain counties, as well as parts of six other surrounding counties, were eligible to vote in Tuesday’s election.
The proposition failed in all areas of the district with McClain County voting against the increase 2,210 to 727, Garvin County voters at 1,113 to 316, Cleveland County at 312 to 180, Grady County at 467 to 131, Murray County 21 to 5 and Pottawatomie County 44 to 19. Pontotoc County and Stephens County had no voters turn out for Tuesday’s election.