Voters in Linn and Benton counties are being asked to decide if their property tax dollars should fund capital projects for the community college.
Linn-Benton Community College serves about 22,000 students at the main campus in Albany and centers in Corvallis, Lebanon and Sweet Home. The school wants to issue a general obligation bond which would cost taxpayers $0.18 per $1,000 of assessed property value. For an average priced home, that's about $36.00 a year.
The last time a bond was issued for the college was 2000. LBCC Spokesman Dale Stowell is optimistic this bond will also pass.
Stowell: "We went to the voters first before we put the package together. We talked to people in our community. We talked to local industry. We did a community poll to try to assess where people saw the need and we structured this bond request based on the feedback that we got."
If approved, the bond will finance maintenance, classroom improvements, parking and new construction of centers for health care occupations and transportation technology.