$1M for sports, band & more will be cut if this Tri-City school levy fails
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- Kiona-Benton City schools ask voters to renew a two-year $4.9M levy, funding programs outside basic state aid.
- Failure would force $1 million in cuts starting 2026, slicing Ki-Be sports and electives.
- Measure preserves LEA match and local services; levy rate set about $1.50 per $1,000.
Kiona-Benton City School District will be forced to make $1 million in cuts, deeply impacting programs like sports, band and STEM classes, if voters reject a levy on the Nov. 4 ballot.
The small Benton County district serving 1,400 students is asking for voters to renew a two-year, $4.9 million levy to support programs not covered by basic education money from Washington state. The levy makes up about 4% of the district’s total operating budget.
It will replace the existing levy that is set to expire in December.
If passed, the measure would keep rates flat at about $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed home value. However, it’s possible that rate could be lower if assessed property values continue to climb. On a home valued at $300,000, the annual tax bill currently would be about $450.
Ki-Be has about the lowest total tax rate among other Mid-Columbia school districts and it’s been on a steady decline since 2017.
“The most important thing about a local levy is it is not money that goes to Olympia or goes anywhere else,” said Superintendent Pete Peterson.
“These are local dollars that are spent on kids in the district where it is collected. It is not part of any payment that goes to a state — it stays here,” he said.
The district’s effort comes after a February levy measure at the same rate and amount failed by just 50 votes.
If it fails again in the general election, the drastic cuts will start in 2026. Under state law, public school districts cannot place the same measure on the ballot more than two times during a single calendar year.
The current request comes after district leaders already cut $1.5 million from the 2025-26 school year because of the failed February vote.
Those cuts included eliminating extracurricular busing, athletic C teams, and freezing administrative salaries and new curricula adoption. The district also cut eight positions from the budget, with half of those being teachers. Three teachers were laid off.
Peterson says those were directly tied to levy dollars.
If this latest measure falters, more cuts are expected:
- Nearly all sports programs would be impacted.
- Elective courses such as band, choir and leadership would be eliminated.
- Other electives, such as STEM, robotics, art, computer instruction and physical education, would also be chopped.
The district will also lose out on a state match known as Local Effort Assistance (LEA), an program which infuses property poor districts with cash for having an active levy in place. That works out to more than $1 million over the next biennium for Ki-Be schools.
At the same time, LEA requires many of its benefit school districts to maintain a levy rate at or above $1.50 per $1,000 of property value.
Washington local levies
Washington funds public schools on a per-pupil basis, sending thousands of dollars to its 295 local school districts for each full-time student enrolled.
But nearly all of the enrichment, extracurricular and athletic programs that families have come to enjoy are not paid through the state formula.
That’s where local levies come in. These are short-term, local property taxes that generate revenue “for the district to fund programs and services that the state does not fund or fully fund as part of ‘basic education.’”
The levies require a simple majority, above 50%, in order to pass.
Ki-Be’s levy will pay for athletics, extracurricular activities, music, band, the arts, advanced courses, keeping class sizes small, counselors, nurses, safety staff, tech support, laptops and special education services.
School Board President Josh Skipper says he spoke to many community members after the February vote who said they felt overtaxed and stretched financially.
He shares many of those same sentiments with his neighbors, but thinks this levy is a “fair ask” of the community — not too high or low.
“It’s not a blanket money grab to just get what we can, and it’s also not so low that we’re having to make draconian cuts,” he said.
The $1.5 million in cuts implemented this school year shows the community that the district is serious about being fiscally responsible, Skipper said.
It’s not the first time voters here have been presented with a make-or-break election.
Ki-Be experienced a double levy failure in 2020 before passing a measure at a reduced amount in 2021.
The failure forced the district to cut $1.3 million from its budget, eliminating several positions and laying off a counselor and administrator, the Herald reported at the time.
Skipper remembers how the district was able to use one-time state and federal COVID-relief dollars to help bridge the gap and spare them from deeper budget cuts.
This time around, though, the outcome of a double failure could be worse as that safety net isn’t there for the district anymore.
School districts do not collect more money if their assessed values rise higher than the district anticipated. If it’s passed by voters, the district only collects the total dollar amount listed on the ballot. The rate is just an estimate.
Ballots for the general election will be mailed out by Friday, Oct. 17. Voters can update their registration online or register for the first time through Oct. 27 at vote.wa.gov. Ballots must be returned or postmarked by Nov. 4.
