A ballot question asking voters whether the state’s gas tax should be increased by 10 cents per gallon to free up more funds for education appeared poised for defeat with the first batch of ballots counted Tuesday night.
Nonbinding Opinion Question No. 1 fell on shaky ground this spring after a risky compromise with the Legislature. And it never regained the early momentum it had before that deal.
Early results showed nearly 60 percent opposed, though just Salt Lake County had numbers posted shortly after 8 p.m.
“We’ve said from the beginning that Question One was going to be decided by who turns out,” said Austin Cox, spokesman for Our Schools Now, which has championed the proposal.