Our Voice: School levies in Columbia-Burbank need a yes

While legislators continue to get into the weeds of the state’s new school funding plan, Mid-Columbia education officials are trying to figure out how to make the untested system work in our community.

To be safe, officials in the Columbia School District in Burbank are asking residents to approve essentially the same two tax levy requests as in the past.

We recommend voters approve them both. The election is Feb. 13, and ballots should arrive in mailboxes late next week.

One measure is the educational programs and operations levy, which replaces what used to be called a “maintenance and operations” levy.

The other is a special technology levy designed to help the school district keep its network up to date and provide more computers and learning opportunities for students.

Both school levies replace the two that will expire at the end of the year.

While there may be more state money on the horizon, those dollars are restricted and must be used for only certain purposes.

Activities and programs such as technology, music, art and athletics and — as of now — special education must be paid for by local property taxes.

That’s why the levy tax requests are so important. If schools are to continue to provide programs that students and parents are used to, it will take community support to do it.

Thanks to the McCleary lawsuit, lawmakers have been forced to find a way for the state to meet its constitutional duty to amply fund K-12 education.

For decades, the state did not give school districts enough money. To make up for that failure, towns and cities that could afford it used local tax money to bridge the difference.

But that resulted in students in poorer school districts going without resources that students in more wealthy areas were able to receive.

Last summer, the Legislature approved the idea of a levy swap, which will increase state property taxes but caps local property taxes for schools at $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

This is supposed to go into effect next year, but nothing is absolutely settled until the Legislature finishes this session.

Many school districts in the Mid-Columbia are opting to run school levies at the $1.50 mark, but Columbia school officials say there is too much uncertainty in Olympia.

They have chosen to run the EPO levy at $3.30 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, which is the same amount requested in 2015 when the last levy was approved.

If the state sticks with its cap, then the amount collected in 2019 would drop to $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed valuation even though Columbia-Burbank voters approve the higher amount.

As for the technology levy, that request is at 53 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation for 2019 and drops until it is 48 cents per $1,000 in 2022.

At worst, voters in the Columbia School District will end up paying about the same levy rate that they have been. If the state cap on local property taxes goes into effect as it is scheduled to do, that amount would be rolled back and they would pay significantly less.

It’s a great deal either way.

We recommend residents approve both measures when they get their ballots.

This story was originally published January 17, 2018 at 4:51 PM with the headline "Our Voice: School levies in Columbia-Burbank need a yes."