Tigard parks bond goes down to defeat

With only 35 percent of Tigard voters weighing in, the bond fails by about 500 votes

By Geoff Pursinger

The Times, Nov 3, 2009, Updated Nov 4, 2009 (7 Reader comments)

Tigard won’t be seeing any new parks in their immediate future, as unofficial election results in Washington County’s special election show the Tigard parks bond – Measure 34-166 – went down with 4,162 yes votes, opposed to 4,654 no votes.

In the end, more than 52 percent of voters felt that now was just not the right time for an additional $20 million in property tax increases.

The measure, the most expensive in recent memory, asked Tigard residents for up to $20 million in order to create several new parks and preserve the few remaining natural areas left in the city. The bond would have been paid back over the next 20 years through higher taxes – 32 cents per $1,000 of property valuation. If passed, the owner of a $300,000 home would have had to pay an additional $96 a year in property taxes.

City officials, including Tigard Mayor Craig Dirksen, had expressed confidence that citizens would pass the measure. Depressed real estate prices in the down economy would have made this the prime time to buy much-needed parks lands, but, instead, the troubled economy was what defeated the measure.

“The uncertainty with the economy made it difficult for people to say yes,” Dirksen said. “Maybe when we have a clearer view of what we can anticipate over next few years we’ll try again.”

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