Hundreds of thousands of people have passed through the gates of the Polk County Fairgrounds since it opened in 1953. Many of the fairgrounds’ buildings in Rickreall are 75 years old and need electric and water system maintenance as well as significant seismic upgrades that would cost millions of dollars.

Polk County is out of ways to pay for that maintenance, and this year’s fair could be the last. It’s a common situation among fairgrounds in Oregon because county governments typically subsidize those facilities with general fund dollars.

Polk County will ask voters in the Nov. 3 election to raise residents’ property taxes to pay for repairs and other fairgrounds expenses. If voters decline to approve the levy, the fairgrounds will close, according to officials.

“If fairs were a private business, all would go bankrupt,” Polk County Administrative Officer Greg Hansen said.

As Oregon county governments feel the squeeze in their budgets, their fairgrounds are often left to suffer.

“I’ve heard very clearly that Polk County is probably the canary in the coal mine, that there will be others that will sort of follow suit,” Oregon Fairs Association lobbyist JL Wilson said. “I know that there’s a lot of eyes on this particular election because it will have implications for other counties.”

Tim Ray, the dean of the agriculture science and technology department at Chemeketa Community College, has been involved with the Polk County Fair since 2004 and is the fair board president. Over the past few decades, he’s seen how the fairgrounds has attracted people of all walks of life and financial means.

“There’s a cultural aspect to county fairs as well too, right?” Ray said. “It’s a way of life and not having that social aspect is scary, right?”

But Polk County officials say financial losses have been mounting at the fairgrounds in Rickreall. The facility operated at a $348,000 deficit last year and that number is growing.

Most of the buildings at the Polk County Fairgrounds were built in the 1950s. All need significant improvements. In some instances, there’s no way to source the parts necessary to repair older equipment.

Polk County officials say they can no longer subsidize the facility from the general fund.

“There is a breaking point for anybody,” Polk County Commissioner Craig Pope said.

Polk County’s November operations levy proposes to use $3.4 million for overdue building improvements, including floors, heating and cooling systems, electrical infrastructure and roofs.

The county says the levy is the last opportunity to save the fairgrounds, which hosts 700 events each year.

“Almost every fair in Oregon generates several hundred thousand dollars, if not millions of dollars, for youth through the livestock auction that occurs at the fairgrounds,” Ray said. “The fairgrounds gets zero from that.”

Polk County has invested $1.7 million in the fairgrounds in the past five or six years but would need to do much more to keep the facility operational.

“I think we can close the gap,” Polk County Commissioner Lyle Mordhorst said. “It takes a building that we can attract RV shows and sports shows. Those are bigger dollars. Those will close that gap some.”

Many fairgrounds in Oregon are in similar fiscal circumstances as Polk County, but none is in such a dire situation.

Property tax revenue has not kept pace with increasing expenses and most general fund dollars go to public safety, so fairgrounds budgets are often the easiest to trim.

“I happen to believe at this point until we fix our fundamental problems with taxation, we’re basically all trying to figure out ways to kick the can down the curb,” said state Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth.

For years, counties have received some state money via an Oregon law that allocates 1 percent of lottery funds. That law, however, caps support at $1.53 million. Last year, each county received about $53,000 for its fairgrounds from that fund, Wilson said.

The fund is expected to have an additional $12.9 million in the 2027-2029 biennium. That means that starting in 2027, counties could receive about $200,000 more per year for their fairgrounds’ operations.

“But again, we’ve had that promise before and they’ve taken that away in the next session,” Hansen said. “It’s always supposed to have been 1 percent.”

Wilson said some counties such as Washington, Jackson and Deschutes are better off financially than others because they have invested significantly in their buildings.

But Yamhill County officials are among those closely watching what happens in Polk County, Wilson said. Yamhill County commissioners have discussed selling the current fairgrounds in McMinnville and moving to another location. That’s because maintaining the facility’s aged buildings is difficult and expensive.

Most counties, like Polk and Yamhill, don’t have the money or a way to raise the money to pay for those kinds of improvements.

“Unfortunately, I’m fearful if we’re the first, we won’t be the last,” Ray said.

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in The Statesman Journal and then was distributed on the USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect.

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