The promise of money for parks and schools wasn't enough to persuade Orange County voters to go for a new tax.

Voters on Tuesday defeated the proposed land-transfer tax by a margin of two to one. The tax would have levied a 0.4 percent tax on the seller in all real estate transactions except gifts and inheritance.

County staff calculated that the tax would have raised $3.5 million, which the Orange County Board of Commissioners said would be set aside for parks and schools.

Opponents poured a lot of money into an anti-tax messages campaign. Statewide real estate associations backed an anti-tax organization called Citizens for a Better Orange County, which spent a little more than $205,000 as of April 28 with $18,000 left to finish out the campaign, according to the campaign's first-quarter finance report.

The commissioners allocated $100,000 for a campaign to educate voters about the tax, and Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton, a real estate agent, organized a grassroots group called Orange Citizens for Schools and Parks to support the proposed measure.

That group spent a little less than $1,350 as of April 26 and had $415 left on hand, according to its first-quarter campaign finance report.