Park City Council member Tim Henney says he thinks that the city’s proposed $48 million open-space bond will pass this November.
Henney says the margin of approval will be a lot more than 51 percent—but not up to the overwhelming margins that traditionally support open-space bonds in the city.
The council last week unanimously voted for the bond proposal, which would include $45 million to acquire the Treasure Hill property, plus $3 million to help acquire a conservation easement on the Snow Ranch Pastures held by the Armstrong family in Thaynes Canyon.
Henney told KPCW that, like other council members, he believes there was a shift in public sentiment, since the city was able to get the bond amount down below $50 million.
“I’ve heard, and I’ve seen a shift from what I would call healthy skepticism, to acceptance and I think it was that 50 million.” Henney continued, “I think getting it below 50 had a pretty significant impact with people. I think also over time as more facts are being rolled out--which we’ve attempted to make those available—as we get closer and as we get actual numbers and we get an actual proposal people then say ok now I’ve got something to look at and dig into. That’s happening as well.”
We asked Henney if the city could have cut spending even more severely—down to $39 million for instance.
“Could we? I mean sure. But it would take some—you know the old analogy of you cut into muscle and then you cut into bone. So, I guess the question would be what would the community be willing to give up in order to make that happen?” Henney explained, “We believe that we took it to the threshold to that the community is willing to accept as far as level of service. We’ve delayed a lot of projects.”
We asked him how the public has reacted to combining the Snow Ranch bonding with Treasure. Henney said it depends on what neighborhood or group you talk to.
“We got an awful lot of written support and e-mails. Maybe 30 or 40 e-mails from the Thaynes Canyon neighborhood and the old town neighborhood were asking and in support of the combined. They like the simplicity and the clarity of one vote for one bond. The bond amount is the same either way you go. That’s an important element of this also. It’s a $48 million authorization for a general obligation bond.” Henney said, “That doesn’t change whether you do them combined or whether you do them stand alone and separate. For some people you have to drill down. This is within the context of we think it works either way but I have a slight preference to keep them separate for the simplicity and clarity. That I have heard as well. We’ve all heard that.”
We asked him his prediction, at this time, about the vote on November 6th.
“Our past history is we have generally between 75% and 82% approval for open space bonds. That’s been our track record.” Henney continued, “I don’t think we’re going to have that level of support, but I think we’re going to still have broad mandate support. I put it lower than traditional but still overwhelming community support that’s kind of my prediction at this point.”
Park City Council member Tim Henney, who added that whatever the voters decide, the goal for council is to make sure they are armed with the facts.
