Running Tri-City school levies costs thousands of dollars, so pass them on the first try

Ballots on school levy requests throughout the Tri-Cities are due Tuesday by 8 p.m.

And if you intend to approve the levy, it’s best to do it this time around.

There’s been chatter on social media threads urging people to vote ‘no’ on the school levies in order to send a message that citizens aren’t happy with kids wearing masks in the classrooms.

The flawed reasoning is that failing a levy in February doesn’t matter because school districts can always run them again.

But that’s a very expensive way to vent frustration over something local school officials have no control over.

While school officials won’t know how much this year’s levy election will cost until they get their bills from the counties, we can assume it will be about the same or more than in the past.

When the Pasco School District ran a levy in 2018, it cost the district over $139,000, according to the Franklin County elections office.

In Benton County, the cost to run school levies in 2018 was a total of $150,000, which included Kennewick, Richland, Finley, Prosser and Kiona-Benton school districts, according to the auditor’s office.

If people are concerned about wasting taxpayer money, why encourage spending thousands of dollars on a second levy try?

State officials have authority over school mask mandates and will withhold funding if school districts don’t comply. Voting ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on a school levy election won’t change that.

And anyone who suggests that the schools should have piggybacked on the August primary election don’t understand how school budgeting works.

Summer is far too late for school districts to plan for staffing for the 2022-23 school year.

School officials often need to know before the end of the school year whether they are going to renew contracts for teachers, aides, nurses, security officers and other staff. That’s why school levy elections are typically held in February and early spring.

So if you haven’t voted, time is running out. At this point, don’t mail your ballots – use the county drop boxes.

Tri-City kids have been through a lot the past two years because of COVID. If you care at all about helping them return to a normal school year then vote ‘yes.’

Voting ‘no’ will only add to their hardships.

This story was originally published February 7, 2022 at 6:51 PM.