Port Townsend Proposition 1 gap narrows slightly in second tally, but still loses nearly 2-1

PORT TOWNSEND — The gap narrowed slightly but not significantly enough to revive city Proposition 1, a second round of vote tallies showed Friday.

With about 2,000 additional Jefferson County ballots counted, preliminary results showed a wide majority rejecting the measure, which asked voters to approve property tax rate increase from $1.95 per $1,000 of assessed valuation to $2.95.

Friday’s results now put the measure losing 65 percent to 35 percent, or 3,116 votes to 1,667.

City Council members have pronounced the measure dead since initial election returns Tuesday night, and said they were bracing themselves for a “hard task” of balancing city budget for 2005.

A special council meeting to set new budget priorities in the failed election’s aftermath is set at 7 p.m. Monday at the USO building, 200 Battery Way in Fort Worden State Park.

The community is invited to voice its suggestions to the council on how to deal with the estimated $770,000 deficit.