Nassau County voters have spoken loudly in response to the
New York Islanders request for a publicly funded new Nassau Coliseum. From AP:
The referendum failed in a 33,526 to 24,553 vote Monday in what elections officials said was a very low turnout for the unusual midsummer election.
The
fact that there was low turnout should not surprise anyone in an irregularly
cycled election. Fact is that the
Islanders were banking on a low turnout to be in their best interest which is
why they had the vote on August 1 instead of election day. The move backfired as the people who went out
and voted were mainly elderly who don’t want to see their already astronomical
taxes raised even more in order to publicly fund a sports arena.
The
fact is that in this case the idea of bailing out the rich owner of the
Islanders from paying to privately fund a new arena was what carried the day
and had so many voting no. The focus for
the Islanders was geared toward hoping they could motivated enough hockey fans
to show up and outnumber the regular citizenry that would be against the idea
instead of convincing the general public of how it could be vital to the
economy in Nassau County.
