Higher than expected turnout: What’s it mean for COCC bond?
Published: November 01. 2009 4:00AM PST
Central Oregon Community College students and officials are just days away from finding out whether their school will be able to build new facilities to accommodate a more than 45 percent enrollment increase over the past two years.
And so far, voter turnout is much higher than COCC board member Charley Miller expected.
“People ask me, ‘Is that good if turnout is 40 percent or more?’” Miller said Friday. “And I would say yes, as long as there’s one more yes vote than no vote.”
As of Friday, voter turnout in Crook and Jefferson counties had surpassed 35 percent, with voter turnout in Deschutes County around 32 percent.
In Tuesday’s election, Central Oregon voters are being asked to approve a $41.58 million bond that would pay for construction of a health and science building on the Bend campus, a technology education center in Redmond, and education campus facilities in Madras and Prineville. It also would fund new labs, clinics and other facilities for health career programs and for renovation of campus facilities.
The bond would cost property owners about 12 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. For a home assessed at $200,000, the bond would cost a homeowner about $24 per year.
If the bond passes, the college also would receive $11.47 million in state funding, which is earmarked for the health and science building and the technology education center. The college will not get that state money if it fails to secure local funding.
Last November, 53 percent of voters rejected a similar bond.
Miller said the college is not officially monitoring the voter returns but has been checking each day to see which precincts are returning the most ballots.
“We’re looking at the traditionally strong and traditionally more challenging precincts,” Miller said, though he wouldn’t specify which precincts he was tracking.
Earlier this year, the board heard from College Relations Director Ron Paradis about the November 2008 election and where the college failed to get votes it needed.
In that election, Paradis said, about 59 percent of Bend voters supported the bond, while voters in Redmond offered less support than in previous elections. In Jefferson County, 56 percent of voters rejected the bond in November 2008, and in Crook County, 62 percent rejected the November 2008 bond.
That was a larger percentage of no votes than in previous, similar COCC bond elections. Paradis also noted earlier this year that the failed November 2008 bond saw less support from voters on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation than is typical.
Miller said that while he and other COCC bond supporters are monitoring the voting turnout, he feels the more important part of what they’re doing is getting the word out to the groups they want to vote: the business community and students.
“We’re phone-banking the typically positive districts, and we are documenting a little of what people say,” Miller said. “So, based on that, we’ve got a good feeling about those areas.”
Now, it’s just time to wait. But Miller is trying to stay positive.
“I feel cautiously optimistic,” he said. “This is really a very challenging time, but I think people understand the need.”
Sheila G.
Miller
can be reached at 541-617-7831 or at smiller@bendbulletin.com.
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