(Spirit Lake)– There will be a referendum on gaming in Dickinson county. The only question is when.
A petition with 779 signatures on it calling for a special election was filed at 3:40 p.m. Monday at the Dickinson County Auditor’s Office by Darwin Pike. 666 signatures were required to put the measure on the ballot.
Pike told KUOO news he feels it’s the right of taxpayers to have a say on the issue and to sort out the facts for themselves.
A date for the election hasn’t been set yet. The board of supervisors this (Tues.) morning reviewed the petition and bandied about some possible dates. Under Iowa law, the earliest the election could be held is June 10; the latest is July 8th. The supervisors have scheduled a special meeting for this Friday to set the date.
In addition to the gambling issue, Dickinson county voters will also be voting this summer on a proposal to extend the local option sales tax for schools another 10 years; and on the courthouse bond issue proposal. The local option sales tax vote is set for June 17th. The supervisors are still deciding what to put on the ballot for a courthouse bond issue. A date for that election will be set once that’s been decided.
Supervisors today (Tues.) expressed concern over the cost of the special elections…estimated to be atleast 10-thousand dollars each. County Auditor and Commissioner of Elections, Nancy Reiman, says cost for the Local Option Sales Tax election will be billed to the individual school districts in the county based on their population.
As a cost-cutting measure, supervisors toyed with the idea of combining the gambling referendum with the local option sales tax vote, but decided not to among concerns voters may confuse the two issues.
