Last week, the Spokane County commissioners wisely back-burnered plans to ask voters for $199 million to build new jails and related corrections facilities.

They said the need for the project is crucial, but on some level, they hopefully have come to the realization that need, no matter how crucial, isn't enough right now to sway voters to part with more of their money to fund public projects.

The need to replace and update aging and inefficient schools wasn't enough to sway voters in the Central Valley and Mead school districts to pass bond measures in February either. Both made effective arguments about need, but neither really came close to convincing enough voters. Each measure required 60 percent voter approval to pass, but both failed to garner a simple majority.

Before that, voters crushed an effort called Spokane Children's Investment Fund, which would have funded a number of programs aimed at dropping the area's high-school dropout rate.

Late this week, ballots are scheduled to go out for a $33.75 million construction bond for East Valley School District. Ballots are due by April 26. If that measure passes, it will be the first bond measure to pass in that district since the 1990s. And it will buck the current trend.

John Dormaier, Mead's director of facilities and planning, says 14 districts statewide had bond elections at or around the same time as the Mead and Central Valley elections and only four passed.

"People are wrestling with uncertainty about how quickly the economy will continue to recover," Dormaier says.

That likely is true, but look at the amount of money requested from voters in recent months and consider the requests coming either this year or next. It could be that it's easier for voters simply to say no to everything rather than wrestle with which need is greatest.

The county will be back with the jails issue. Whether the commissioners ask voters for the entire $199 million or break it into smaller pieces, they will want to replace and fix the county's aging detention centers soon.

The Spokane Public Facilities District plans next year to ask voters to extend its current taxing authority to fund a $60 million to $70 million convention center expansion. PFD leaders already are marketing the fact that this is a tax extension and asserting it isn't a new tax. Whether voters will see it that way remains to be seen.

Mead will return to voters with a maintenance-and-operations bond request early next year and won't consider its capital needs until after that election. Proponents of the Central Valley bond already are returning to the drawing board, trying to find a successful strategy.

As a member of the business community, I wouldn't mind seeing all of them pass. Big, public construction projects create a lot of work for an industry that's hungry for more activity right now. They create jobs, and much of the money spent on them continues to circulate in the local economy. The end product has its benefits too, whether it's a better learning environment, the ability to bring larger events to town, or a jail system that isn't a liability.

I also realize most government officials and volunteers involved in putting these bond measures together feel like they're responsible in their requests, asking only for what is necessary. But to get anything passed, they are going to need to get the dollar amounts down somehow, knowing that a plea of need simply isn't good enough right now for voters. When voting from the privacy of their own homes, surrounded by their own needs, it's simply easier to say no—and to do so without much guilt.