A tennis court at Salt Lake City's Tanner Park is spider-webbed with cracks. The paint at Taylorsville's Valley Regional Softball Complex is peeling. A playground at Magna's Copper Park is showing stress fractures.
Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon pitched a $110 million bond to the County Council on Tuesday that would improve scores of parks — including those above — and create several new ones from swaths of green space.
But the two-term Democratic mayor could face resistance in getting that parks initiative on November's ballot.
The proposal didn't resonate well with some Republicans on the GOP-led council. They pushed successfully Tuesday to have the measure heard by the county's debt-review committee before it returns to a council vote.
Councilman Steve DeBry, for one, rattled off a lengthy list of reservations. He wonders whether the bond would pay for wants, rather than needs.
"Taxpayers are not an ATM," he said, "for the desires of government."
But Councilman Jim Bradley, a Democrat, countered that residents should be able to decide for themselves what to pay for. The council is deciding whether to put the bond to a public vote, not whether to impose the tax increase itself.
"We should never fear allowing people to make a decision that affects their own livelihoods," Bradley said.
Corroon's goal is to get the measure on this fall's ballot. The bond, if voters approve it, would tack an extra $14 a year onto the property-tax bill of a $200,000 home.
While the measure would pay for upkeep in existing parks — think new roofs, new tennis courts, new playground equipment and new irrigation systems — most of the money would go toward the development of new regional parks.
An estimated $27.5 million would go toward current parks, compared with $82.5 million that would pay for the construction of large-scale parks in cities such as Draper, where the county has 64 acres waiting.
Corroon also plans to set aside money to extend the Jordan River Parkway.
The proposal is expected to return to the council later this month.
Corroon has included $250,000 in his budget to pay for education if the council chooses to put it on the ballot.
jstettler@sltrib.com
Twitter: Stettler_Trib
