Here’s how Bexar County and state voters leaned in some of the biggest ballot questions of the November election.
SAN ANTONIO — The ballots have been counted, the results posted and another Election Day is in the books for Bexar County.
Though this was an odd-year November election with no major statewide seats up for grabs, the polls were nonetheless a popular place to be Tuesday: About 100,000 voters lined up to make their voices heard on a variety of issues, most notably the question of funding a new downtown Spurs arena.
Here’s how that ballot measure and other major ones shook out once the polling dust settled. For full election results, click here.
Bexar County Propositions A and B
Most of the night’s attention was on the results for these two ballot measures which, now that they’ve passed, will help shape the future of San Antonio entertainment as it pertains to the Spurs and rodeo.
The San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo is in line to receive $192 million for upgrades and renovations to the Freeman Coliseum and Frost Bank Center grounds on the east side. Meanwhile, the Spurs – the city’s only major professional sports franchise – will continue to draw up a game plan for the construction of a $1.3 billion Spurs arena that Bexar County, the City of San Antonio and the team have committed to paying for.
The dollars will come from hotel room and car rental tax dollars. Only the hotel rental tax is going up, from 1.75% to 2%.
Texas constitutional amendments
Voters also weighed in on 17 proposed state constitutional amendments impacting everything from capital gains taxes and bail reform to funding for water infrastructure improvements and property tax exemptions.
With 82% of polling locations reporting results across the state to the Texas Secretary of State’s office, all 17 of those amendments appeared poised to pass as of early Wednesday morning. The majority collected wide margins of voter approval, the lone exceptions being Propositions 6 and 17.
Those would prohibit the state from creating new taxes on securities transactions, such as stock trading, and allow Texas to prevent property values in border counties from increasing due to border security infrastructure, respectively. Though both propositions had narrower margins, those margins still were in the hundreds of thousands of votes.
Converse mayor, City Council
Voters in Converse decided to give incumbent Al Suarez another term leading the Bexar County community of about 28,000 residents.
Windcrest mayor, City Council
Dan Reese retained his seat as mayor of Windcrest, the small Bexar County community located northeast of San Antonio.
North East ISD’s $495 million bond
Voters delivered a partial grade on North East ISD’s $495 million bond package – the second-largest in the district’s history – approving the biggest allocations for repairs, technology upgrades and some athletics center renovations.
But voters rejected roughly $11 million that would have been used to improve Comalander and Heroes stadiums, as well as district natatoriums.
NEISD services an estimated 57,000 students in San Antonio.