HOUSTON (CN) - Harris County voters on Tuesday rejected a bond measure to save the Astrodome, setting up the "Eighth Wonder of the World" for a date with a wrecking ball.
Proposition 2 would have allowed Harris County to issue up to $217 million in bonds to turn the dome into a massive event center.
Prop. 2 would have increased taxes on a $200,000 home by about $8 a year, according to the county budget office.
County officials said they would recommend the dome be demolished if the measure failed.
"We're going to have to do something quick," County Judge Ed Emmett told the Houston Chronicle after the votes came in Tuesday night.
"We can't allow the once-proud Dome to sit like a rusting ship in the middle of a parking lot."
The Astrodome was the first domed baseball park when it opened in 1965.
A county judge in Texas is not a judicial officer, but the head of the County Commission.
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