Ballots went out for a $155 million parks bond measure. What would it pay for?
If you live in Tacoma, Parks Tacoma is asking you to vote on a $155 million bond measure in a special election on April 28.
Ballots for the special election went out on April 10, and must be postmarked by Election Day or dropped off at a ballot drop box by 8 p.m. that day. The measure would continue a tax rate of $0.45 per $1,000 of assessed value, $249 annually for the owner of a house with an assessed value of about $553,000 – the most recent average in the park district. The rate is on average the same rate voters were paying under Parks Tacoma’s soon-to-expire 2014 bond, according to Parks Tacoma.
But what would the money actually pay for?
Parks Tacoma outlined a list of 42 sites for projects that range from a redevelopment of People’s Community Center in Hilltop to the construction of new skate parks in downtown and South Tacoma. Terry Jungman, Parks Tacoma’s capital improvement program manager, said if the measure gets the 60% of the vote plus one vote it needs to pass, it’ll fund at least 100 different projects across the 42 sites.
“We are committing to doing something at each of these sites, to making an investment,” Jungman told The News Tribune.
The 42 sites are spread across the city, with each neighborhood on track to have anywhere from four to six sites. Central Tacoma has the most number of sites on the list with 11, which Jungman said is because central Tacoma is among the city’s oldest neighborhoods, and as such has more aging infrastructure that’s in need of repairs or replacement.
Jungman said the redevelopment of People’s Community Center is among the more “iconic” projects on the list. It’s an aging facility in a 50-year-old building that’s “way past due” for a replacement – a significant undertaking that could cost up to $40 million and take up to eight years to complete, he said.
Jamika Scott, a city council member for District 3 who has worked on the Yes on Parks campaign, said the People’s Community Center project is long overdue.
“This is a key step in being able to bring more money to that project, to build it out in a way that really has the biggest impact on the community,” she told The News Tribune.
The project list also includes plans for land acquisitions in certain neighborhoods of Tacoma, sites to serve as new parks. Matt Mauer, president of the Parks Tacoma board, said he’s excited about those in particular.
“We’ve got money in this park bond to purchase and acquire new land to create new parks where there weren’t any before,” he told The News Tribune. “In the south side of Tacoma and the eastside, there are not as many parks to maintain and upgrade, because there just aren’t as many.”
The special election comes as Parks Tacoma contends with a budget deficit. But the revenue from the bond would only contribute to the agency’s capital projects, which is separate from the deficit which is in its general fund.
The special election also comes after voters rejected two tax measures that would address street improvements and repairs and fund the city’s fire department. But stakeholders were optimistic that the measure would get the support it needs despite the higher-than-usual approval threshold.
Mauer said it was important to the agency that the bond didn’t represent an increase in taxes to Tacoma residents.
“Our ability to not raise taxes was a big priority for the board to ensure that we’re not putting an extra burden during this time of economic uncertainty,” he said.
If the measure doesn’t pass, Jungman said Parks Tacoma will likely seek to bring the measure back to the voters at a later election after revising it and surveying Tacoma residents to understand why it failed.
“It’s very likely that if the bond were to not pass, that we may have to put some capital projects on hold, because a lot of the work that we have ongoing right now relies upon the funding that would come in through this 2026 bond if it were to pass,” he said.
