Simple majority for levies urged

OLYMPIA – Complaining that it’s easier to raise taxes for a new prison than for a new school, education advocates want to overturn a decades-old rule that school bonds and levies be approved by 60 percent of voters.

“Why should schools be held to a higher standard than sports stadiums, jails and libraries?” Lisa Macfarlane, president of the League of Education Voters, asked lawmakers Wednesday. She and others say that a majority of votes – 50 percent plus one – should be enough.

Some lawmakers are uneasy, however, at the thought of making it easier to raise taxes.

“It’s taxpayer protection,” Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, said of the 60-percent rule. “Some areas simply can’t afford any more property taxes.”

Voter-approved school bonds help pay for projects like renovating or building schools. Levies help pay for things like additional staff, new computers, after-school programs and maintenance.

“Originally, they (levies) were put in for the ‘extras,’ ” said Rainer Houser, lobbyist for the state school principals’ association. “It is no longer the extras. Today, levies provide the basics.”

In 1944, on the heels of the Great Depression, Washingtonians amended the state constitution to require a 60 percent “yes” for bonds and levies. They also can pass if 60 percent of 40 percent of the number of voters in the school district’s last general election give their approval – in other words, if there were 10,000 district voters in the last general election, at least 2,400 would have to vote yes to approve a levy.

Those hurdles are too high for critical school dollars, education advocates say. Today, it’s common for school districts to win majority approval – say 52 to 56 percent – but to fall short of the 60 percent “supermajority” needed.

“People that stay at home and don’t vote have more power than those who do,” said Sen. Tracy Eide, D-Federal Way.

In a time when schools desperately need money to fulfill higher expectations, teachers and school officials said Wednesday that the state should make it easier for school districts to get the money they need.

The Senate proposals would change the 60-percent requirement to a simple majority. They would also strip away a rule that at least 40 percent as many people as voted in the district’s last general election must vote in a bond/levy election for it to be considered valid.

But changing the constitution is no light matter. Two-thirds of all lawmakers would have to agree, and then a majority of the state’s voters would have to OK the change at the next November election.

“If it goes to the people, I have some trepidation and fear,” said Sen. Paul Shin, D-Edmonds. “…When people go to the polls, unfortunately they do not read much. They see ‘levy’ and read ‘tax increase.’ “

“We actually believe that the people will listen to us and we will be able to convince them,” said Barbara Mertens, assistant director of the Washington Association of School Administrators.

Most school levies and bonds pass, according to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. In 2003, Spokane Public Schools passed a $165 million bond that includes replacing three elementary schools, renovating two high schools and building a new gym at Ferris High School.

Even those that fail at first usually pass on the second try, although those second attempts cost school districts thousands in election costs.

Sometimes, though, voters repeatedly reject the taxes. In November, the Liberty School District near Spokane failed for a fourth straight time to win voter approval for a $6 million bond to build another gym, a football field and a playground cover.

In Onalaska, a former timber community south of Olympia, voters last spring twice said no to renewing a school levy. On its second try the measure failed by 58.4 percent. As a result, the district has laid off 14 people, including a gym teacher, counselor, librarian and administrator. It’s curtailed its lunch program, bus runs and extracurricular activities.

“We’re kind of holding the district together with baling wire and bubble gum,” said Onalaska Superintendent Dale McDaniel, a former Spokane-area principal. “We have only skeletal athletic programs and almost no clubs.”

The district will try again next month, he said. Even if that passes, he said, it will likely take the district years to build the canceled programs back up to what they were.

“This is just a tragedy that should not be allowed to happen in the state of Washington,” he told lawmakers.

Sen. Joyce Mulliken, R-Ephrata, said that the state must also weigh the effect of the change on taxpayers. Many of the people lobbying to lower the 60-percent rule, she noted, are teachers.

“I don’t see a need to make it easier to raise taxes,” she said. “…When it comes to taxes, you have an awful lot of taxpayers to one little teacher.”