After completing the canvass this morning, which included considering all provisional ballots, the county released final results: 9,020 people, or 50.8 percent, voted for the tax; 8,750 people, or 49.2 percent, voted against it.
That means 17,770 people voted – 18.4 percent of the 96,435 who were registered to vote in the election.
The results remain unofficial until commissioners certify them at a meeting on Tuesday.
The tax taxes effect on Jan. 1, 2008. None of the money that’s collected can be spent until the state signs a lease with Virgin Galactic and obtains a commercial spaceport license from the Federal Aviation Administration.
If those conditions aren’t met by the end of 2008, commissioners have already stated, in a resolution, their intent to rescind the tax and seek approval to spend the money already collected – which at that point would be about $6.7 million – on other needs.
The tax is set to sunset in 20 years or as soon as the bonds it funds are paid off. If the growth tax supporters predict becomes a reality, the bonds should be paid off sooner than that.