The park district had offered voters the option to reduce property taxes by replacing some of that cost with a half percent sales tax, but there wasn’t quite enough support for the idea. The tally showed a 25-vote spread, with 979 votes against and 954 votes in favor.

The measure sought to impose a half percent sales tax in conjunction with a 12-mill decrease in the district’s general fund property-tax cap. It would have amounted to about a 40% reduction in the Minot Park District portion of a Minot property owner’s tax bill.

Then Park Board President Perry Olson responded after the election to say the voters’ decision will mean the district will be in maintenance mode and won’t be pursuing a proposed new turf building that had been connected with the measure.

The park board had proposed using the revenue to pay the bonds on a 30,000-square-foot turf facility with a suspended walking track, meeting rooms and storage space. Sales tax income also would have paid operating costs on the Hoeven and Corbett baseball complexes, soccer complex, Roosevelt Park Zoo and Maysa Arena.

Jill Schramm/MDN Jason Zimmerman casts his ballot in the June 3 park district election in Minot Municipal Auditorium.

The district had conducted an indoor facilities study that found community interest in constructing a new fieldhouse with turf. The park board decided a sales tax would be the best way to accomplish the construction without burdening residents with higher taxes. Visitors who use Minot’s park facilities would share in their cost with the sales tax option, according to the park board’s election information.

The board also planned to replace a 38-mill cap on its general fund with a new cap of 26 mills for at least 20 years.

A half percent sales tax for the park district would have lifted the total sales tax in Minot, including state and county, to 8% and raised an estimated $6 million annually for the park district.

Later in the year, the park board approved a 2026 budget that uses only 0.62% of the 3% increase in property tax allowed in a new state law, but the district expects to be in maintenance mode with projects, with no new major construction planned.