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JOSHUA BOLKAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
Supporters of the Parkrose School District's bond measure might want to hold their breath until June 6, when the May 17 election results are certified.
As of Friday, May 27 at 4 p.m. measure 26-123 was passing 2,528-2,520.
That's not enough to avoid an automatic recount, which would be triggered by a difference of one fifth of one percent of the total vote count, or 10 votes at the current count.
Parkrose School District Superintendant Karen Fischer Gray said, “Being in a tie is very nerve wracking,” but added, “we remain very hopeful,” that the measure will pass.
Fischer Gray also said that if the vote goes to a recount, “We will be observing it ballot by ballot.”
Yes for Parkrose, the political action committee formed to pass the 30-year-long $63 million bond measure, estimated that they would need 2,500 votes to pass the measure.
They received that many yes votes and a few more.
That may be enough, according to Multnomah County Elections Spokesman Eric Sample.
Sample said that it is common for the vote totals to change in recounts, but that in his 12 years at Multnomah County Elections he has “never been involved in an automatic recount that has changed the results.”
Sample also said that there are around 600 votes still uncounted, but that most of those will be from outside the Parkrose School district and will not have much impact on the bond measure.
Fischer Gray, who cited the fact that this bond would maintain the current tax rate as a major factor in the decision to ask for the money, also indicated that the district would not put another bond measure before the voters in the immediate future if this one fails.
“We are in a very tough economic time,” Fischer Gray said.
Fischer Gray also said that she believes the $548 million Portland Public Schools bond measure hurt the Parkrose measure.
“We would have passed it handily,” Fischer Gray said, if the PPS bond had not been put forward at the same time.
Fischer Gray said that Yes for Parkrose canvassers frequently had to tell voters that Parkrose was not Portland Public Schools, and that there were a number of anti-PPS measure signs in Parkrose yards, leading voters to think that the bond would raise their property taxes by an average of $400 a year.
As the close vote tally suggests, not everyone in the district is happy with the unofficial results.
Mike Keating, a current resident and retired mechanic who ran for the school board in 1995 and put three children through Parkrose schools was an outspoken critic of the measure.
“It's a shame that this passed because the people paying for it can't afford to pay for it,” Keating said. “Tammy Taxpayer and Joe Sixpack that are living paycheck to paycheck can't afford it, and they're the ones that are going to pay for it.”
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