Our founding fathers warned of a “tyranny of the majority“. The city of Grand Junction thought they had an idea the people would endorse — a means to fund public safety projects. However, the voters of Grand Junction failed to endorse the measure. Here are reasons why:
- In focus groups, 9.6 percent said the initiative may have failed because of its tie to overturn TABOR for a nonspecific amount of time, which many said was an unpopular move in Grand Junction.
- Another 13.7 percent said the project was misunderstood, and 7.8 percent said the poor economy didn’t help.
- Nearly 9 percent said people who voted no distrusted the city or didn’t believe the city couldn’t find the money another way, and
- 6.7 percent said people didn’t approve of the way the city spent money in the past, such as on roundabouts of the Seventh Street and Colorado Avenue projects.
Question : If the public can’t agree on how to fund a public value – is that a public value failure, or a market failure (lack of information)?
