Topeka citywide half-cent sales tax for streets passes by significant margin

Topeka voters by a significant margin Tuesday evening approved a 10-year extension of a citywide, half-cent sales tax used to finance the maintenance and improvement of existing streets.

Complete, unofficial results showed 26,117 voters, or 61.51 percent, cast ballots in favor of the proposal while 16,346, or 38.49 percent, voted against it.

“It’s a good day for Topeka, to get this thing passed,” said Jim Parrish, chairman of the nonprofit group Future Forward, which ran an advertising campaign to promote passage of the question. No groups were formed to actively campaign against it.

Parrish said the margin of victory suggested that voters recognized that Topeka’s public works department, under the direction of Jason Peek, has working in a logical and economical way to use revenue from the tax to improve the condition of Topeka’s streets.