Redmond residents are about 50-50 in support of raising taxes to help pay for future parks and transportation projects, according to survey results, released Tuesday.

Results from a recent survey have prompted City of Redmond staff to take a closer look at its overall planning and financial strategy regarding the city’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) and Capital Investment Strategy (CIS) before considering putting a bond measure on November’s ballot.

About 400 registered voters in Redmond participated in a survey conducted by an outside firm to see if the people of Redmond would be willing to support a potential parks and transportation bond. The results were almost split down the middle with support for a bond in a slight lead.

Survey participants were asked twice whether they would support higher taxes, once at the beginning of the interview and once at the end after they learned more about the issues around the measure. Initially, 49 percent of participants said they would support a bond and 45 percent were opposed. Six percent were unsure. The results after participants were more informed on the topic were not much different, with 53 percent in support, 43 opposing and 4 percent unsure. The margin of error for the survey results was 4.9 points.

Parks Director Craig Larsen said if they had received an overwhelming positive response — closer to a 75 percent approval — the city would go ahead and propose a bond measure for November.

“Because the results are positive but modest, we’re going to look at this much more broadly,” he said.

Larsen, who was part of a group of city staff who presented the survey results to City Council Tuesday evening, said this means city staff will look at their estimates for expenditures on potential projects and make sure they are accurate.

Right now, the capital parks budget for 2013-18 is estimated at $23.6 million, but that is only 54 percent of what city staff estimates they need for their list of potential projects. Redmond’s capital transportation budget for that same time period is estimated at $103.5 million, but that is 66 percent of what staff estimates they need for projects.

“We have more capital needs than capital funding,” Redmond Mayor John Marchione told Council.

Larsen said staff will also look at what capital projects — specific ones such as the Redmond Central Connector and the planned downtown park and general ones like sidewalk repairs and park renovations — can realistically be completed in the next 10 years. He said by taking a closer look at everything, city staff will have a better idea of what the funding gap really is. Additionally, Larsen said staff will look into other possible sources of funding such as grants as an alternative to raising taxes.

During the presentation to Council, staff shared other survey results. Carolyn Hope, a senior planner for the City of Redmond, said survey participants were also asked if they were more likely to support a bond measure for just transportation or for just parks. Thirty-five percent said they would more likely support a transportation-only measure; 23 percent were less likely and 42 percent were not sure. On the other side, only 12 percent said they would more likely support a parks-only measure; 47 percent were less likely and 42 percent were unsure. Hope said these percentages were rounded to the nearest decimal.

Hope said participants were also asked to rate Redmond city government. Most people gave the city a B or better for services, using tax dollars responsibly and protecting Redmond’s quality of life. This being said, she added that people did not see the need to raise taxes and 42 percent thought Redmond’s tax level is higher than surrounding jurisdictions. Forty percent said they did not know how Redmond compared to other cities. In actuality, Redmond’s tax level is lower than its neighboring cities as well as unincorporated King County.

“People were not convinced of the urgency and need for additional revenue,” Hope told Council.

One of the reasons for this may be that people don’t understand the difference between the city’s operational budget and its capital budget. Larsen said the operational budget, which is balanced for the next six years, covers what it costs to run the city. The capital budget funds projects the city would like to do in order to accommodate future growth.