Beeville residents voted with their pocketbooks Tuesday, supporting the city’s plan to use $200,000 in 4B sales tax for street repair and improvements.

Some 58 percent of the residents who voted in the election supported the proposition; 42 percent opposed it.

A total of 1,472 voters cast ballots in the hotly contested election that pitted City Hall against the Bee County Chamber of Commerce.

Of those 1,472 voters, 849 cast ballots in support of the measure and 623 against it.

“This is a good thing for our community,” Beeville Mayor Pro Tem John Fulghum said. “A lot of this money comes from people who pass through our community and stop and shop or from people who live outside the city limits. They’re helping to pay for our streets.”

Beeville residents voted 12years ago to spend one-half of one percent of sales tax returned to the community by the state on infrastructure.

Here’s how the official ballot read:

“Proposition: Adoption of an additional one-half of one percent sales and use tax within the city pursuant to the provisions of article 5190.6 V.T.C.S, as amended, (The Development Corporation Act of 1979), with the proceeds thereof to be used and applied in the manner and to the purposes authorized by section 4B of the act, including but not limited to municipal buildings, water and sewer facilities, streets, drainage, public safety facilities, demolition of blighted structures including the maintenance and operation costs of any such projects mentioned above.”

The proposition approved by voters Tuesday will allow the city to earmark one-eighth of that one percent solely for street maintenance and repair.

The remaining $660,000 or so returned to the city annually will go into the purse of the Beeville Economic Improvement Corp. for use in attracting business, creating jobs, and quality-of-life projects such as parks improvements.

Opponents of the proposition, including the Bee County Chamber of Commerce, argue the entire $800,000 in sales tax should be spent entirely on economic development.

“The increased tax money brought in by the economic development of this city is critical; it helps the city of Beeville maintain streets, infrastructure and all other services provided to Beeville’s residents,” said Jessy T. Garza, a member of the Chamber’s Community Affairs Committee, which drafted a news release last month opposing the city’s proposition.

Beeville Mayor Kenneth Chesshir disagrees with the Chamber’s assessment.

After election results were posted Tuesday night, he voiced his concern about an attempt by opponents to scare off supporters by falsely claiming that they will pay higher taxes if the proposition passes.

“This is a good day for Beeville,” he said. “The only thing our taxpayers are going to notice is that our streets are going to be getting better. This truly is a tax that just comes from a sales tax. I know in this campaign there were a lot of things tossed about, and I think towards the end there were some signs and things that kind of confused people, but their taxes are not going to go up because of it.”

Chesshir was referring to signs that were planted in the ground around the city that warned residents their taxes would go up if the city’s proposition passed.

The sign exclaimed: “Vote against sales tax prop. No more city taxes.” The sign does not say who paid for the signs.

Chesshir said someone also handed out leaflets on Monday night that warned voters they would pay higher property taxes if the proposition passed.

Chesshir did not say who passed out the leaflets, but he vowed that passage of the proposition does not mean higher property taxes for Beeville residents.

“Their taxes are going to stay low because this ($200,000) is coming from the 4B sales tax, and that is just one-eighth of the 4B (sales tax the city receives annually),” Chesshir explained. “That will be this year around $200,000, a little over $200,000 will go to our streets and somewhere around $600,000 for other entities and projects.”

Chesshir thanked voters for supporting the City Council.

“I want to thank the citizens of Beeville for passing this,” he said. “They truly did themselves a favor — they did us all a favor — because we are going to have some nicer streets. And I also want to thank them for not having the wool pulled over their eyes. In all politics you get curves thrown at you but... truth always prevails.”