Rochester voters approve parks referendum

Rochester voters overwhelmingly passed a ballot referendum on parks Tuesday evening, slightly raising the city’s property taxes while giving Rochester Parks and Recreation $2 million to add to its 2021 budget.

The referendum passed with 37,873 votes, good for 61.39 percent of the total vote share. (23,823 people voted against the referendum.) Fifty of the city’s 52 precincts came out in overall support of the referendum, with two exceptions in precincts seven and nine for Ward 4. 

Rochester’s property tax rate will increase by 0.0168 percent as a result. The ‘average’ Rochester homeowner (with property valued at $200,000) will pay an extra $33 in property taxes next year.  

Paul Widman, director of Rochester Parks and Recreation, said in an October interview with Med City Beat that the $2 million boost would fill the void left by the $1.7 million budget cuts instituted in 2020 thanks to Covid-19.

The added funds for 2021 will be used to overhaul the Silver Lake Pool site and upgrading outdated infrastructure — think tennis and basketball courts, picnic shelters, and public park bathrooms. 

“It also addresses growth in the community, and allows us to build a couple of new amenities that people have been asking for,” added Widman, noting that Parks and Rec had been ‘whittling away’ at $80 million worth of upgrades since the parks master plan was developed in 2015. 

Cover photo by Med City Beat