Ballots due back for school levy election on Feb. 9

If you haven’t voted yet in the Feb. 9 special election on renewing school operations levies in Benton and Franklin counties — and a recent tally of ballot returns shows you probably haven’t — you only have a couple more days to do so.

Eight school districts in the two counties are asking voters to renew maintenance and operations levies in the Feb. 9 election, which help pay for everything from teacher salaries and athletic programs, to building maintenance and school nurses. Most of the levies come up for renewal every two years.

About one out of four of the more than 125,000 ballots mailed to voters in late January have returned to their respective county auditor offices as of Friday afternoon.

School districts have increasingly relied on maintenance and operation, or M&O, levies to balance their budgets in recent years as state support for K-12 education fails to keep up with increasing costs. The levies often provide between 15 percent to 20 percent of a school district’s annual budget.

In addition to teacher salaries and building maintenance, levy money also supports arts programs, pays for classroom supplies and covers some of the costs associated with having school resource officers.

In Benton County the Finley, Kennewick, Kiona-Benton City, Paterson and Richland school districts are seeking levy renewals while the Kahlotus, North Franklin and Pasco school districts in Franklin County have theirs on the ballot.

Levy elections typically have among the lowest voter turnout, with the last one in 2014 receiving about 35 percent of the ballots mailed to voters in Benton County returned. And low turnout hasn’t necessarily threatened levy passage in the past: some districts have had their levies approved by as much as 70 percent of those who voted. Levies require just over 50 percent approval to be renewed.

Ballots must either be in their respective county auditor’s offices or in an official ballot drop box by 8 p.m. Feb. 9.

This story was originally published February 5, 2016 at 4:42 PM with the headline "Ballots due back for school levy election on Feb. 9."