Ballard Votes to Pay the Piper
A special election in the young city of Ballard clears the three-fifths bar to fund debts that ran about $3,000 past the legal limit.
BALLARD FINDS ITS DEBT.
The Proposition Carried by Three-Fifths Majority of Light Vote.
The proposition to fund the outstanding debts of the city of Ballard, which amount to about $3,500, about $3,000 over the legal limit, was carried at the special election yesterday by a majority of forty-two over the required three-fifths. The vote was light, only about 20 per cent of the total registered vote being cast.
The vote in detail by wards was reported, with the First ward casting 67 votes, the Second 77 and the Third 36.
“The proposition to fund the outstanding debts of the city of Ballard ... was carried at the special election yesterday by a majority of forty-two over the required three-fifths.”
Ballard was still an independent city in 1895, and its willingness to borrow past the legal limit captures the get-it-built spirit that later made it part of Seattle. The light turnout and debt-limit fight echo today’s municipal bond and levy elections, where a small slice of voters decide what a growing city owes and what it can build.
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