Results of tax levy questions on the Tuesday election ballot in Belmont County were puzzling, in some ways. Two school levies and a countywide issue to support social services were defeated by voters. A levy to support the Bellaire Police Department also failed.

Yet elsewhere in East Ohio, school levies were approved by voters. And some levies in Belmont County, including one to fund police in St. Clairsville, were approved.

It can be imprudent to reach sweeping conclusions about election returns. Still, it seems to us that voters' reactions to levy proposals were not based on a generalized anti-tax sentiment in East Ohio. Again, some levies were approved by voters - sometimes by wide margins. In Shadyside, voters approved a levy for village government but rejected one for the school system.

Clearly those who voted against levy proposals were not sold on the need for taxes.

Both the Shadyside and Bridgeport school levy proposals were for renewals of existing taxes. In both communities, the levies were rejected by substantial, though not overwhelming, margins. Shadyside's proposal was defeated by a vote of 1,124 to 896, according to unofficial returns. In Bridgeport, the vote was 859 to 773.

Failure of the levies for Shadyside and Bridgeport schools will have a major negative effect, unless the districts try again to receive voter approval. If they do so, it is clear that school officials must do a much better job of explaining why they need money from the levies. Before any firm decisions on whether to submit the levies to voters again are reached, officials in both school districts should undertake objective evaluations of what went wrong - and of what needs to be done to regain the confidence of voters.