Simple-Majority Proposal For School Levies Hits Snag

Gov. Gary Locke’s proposal to allow simple-majority approval of school levies and bonds apparently is dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled Legislature, enmeshed in the property-tax revolt.

Currently, the state Constitution requires a 60-percent supermajority to approve special property tax levies and a 40-percent voter turnout to validate the election. For years, education advocates have chafed at the requirements, noting that many districts get well over 50 percent yes votes, but not quite enough to win the supermajority.

The Senate Education Committee on Friday took testimony on a bipartisan plan to lower the necessary majority to 50 percent, but the proposal isn’t going anywhere, said Chairman Harold Hochstatter, R-Moses Lake.

Lawmakers have gotten the message from taxpayers that property taxes already are too high and won’t do anything to make it easier to pass levies, he said in an interview.

“We are doubling the property tax burden every eight years, and that is just not sustainable,” he said.

If the Legislature manages to put a lid on the growth of state and local property taxes, local school patrons will be more likely to support school levies, Hochstatter said. The overall property tax burden, not the supermajority, is the problem, he said.

A number of citizens at the hearing said the same thing.

“Schools are last in line” in asking for money and the levy vote is one of the few chances for taxpayers to express their frustration over the total tax burden, said Don Lotz of Puyallup.

“If you want to help schools … do something about property taxes,” Lotz said.

If the Legislature reduces the state-collected tax and limits the growth of property tax levies for other local purposes, school districts will have no difficulty getting heavy majorities for their levies, he said.

The change drew support from the Washington Education Association, Washington State School Directors’ Association and the state PTA. The school boards’ spokesman, Dwayne Slate, himself a former Olympia school board member, said lawmakers may need to find a long-term alternative to property taxes as the way to finance education.

Sen. Bob Oke, R-Port Orchard, is sponsor of a constitutional amendment, SJR8207, to drop the requirement to 50 percent. He also adds a new wrinkle: Districts would get only one shot a year to pass their levy or bond issue, and that would be on the general election ballot, always the year’s best turnout.

In other developments:

State regulations

A proposal to trim the power of state regulators to make rules passed the House on Friday over objections that it would threaten environmental protection, worker safety and consumers.

The 65-33 vote to send the bill to the Senate, where it is expected to fare well, came after majority Republicans beat back a flood of amendments from Democrats trying to weaken the measure. The bill passed on a largely party line vote.

Foes said the bill, HB1032, would greatly hobble agencies, such as the insurance commissioner’s office and Department of Natural Resources, that are trying to protect citizens from the excesses of business and industry.

But backers said it was needed to rein-in regulators who have gone beyond the authority of the law.

Among other things, the bill would inhibit the insurance commissioner’s power to regulate unfair practices by insurers, Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn said. That power has been used, for example, to shut down fly-by-night companies who sold senior citizens burial insurance at exorbitant rates, she said.

The bill, which is expected to pass the Republican Senate, faces an uncertain fate if it reaches Gov. Gary Locke’s desk. His predecessor, fellow Democrat Mike Lowry, vetoed a flood of “regulatory reform” legislation in recent years.

Execution witnesses

Family members of victims would have far more access to executions and reporters far less under a bill considered by a House panel Friday.

The measure, which has strong prospects for passage this year, drew fire from media representatives who said it was vital that the public have a large contingent of reporters on hand to witness the state’s ultimate punishment.

Speaking in favor of the bill was Lorene Iverson, who said she was the only member of her family allowed to witness the 1994 hanging of Charles Rodman Campbell for the slayings of three women, including Iverson’s sister and niece.

Meanwhile, 12 reporters were allowed into the death chamber to observe the hanging at the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla.

“When it was all said and done, all 12 of them looked over to see my face,” Iverson told the House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee.

“Yes, the public needs to know, but I don’t think we need 12 of them to do that,” said Iverson, who flew in from North Dakota to testify.

“We are all executioners somehow in this state” because the death penalty is the product of the democratic system, responded Rowland Thompson, executive director of Allied Daily Newspapers, which represents 26 state daily papers. “These people are not being executed for the victims, they are being executed for society.”