School board gives options on levy
Coeur d’Alene voters will see three choices when they go to the ballot box May 15 to vote on the school district’s proposed tax levy: $14.6 million over two years, that amount plus an additional $3 million or nothing at all.
School board members decided to alter the proposal at a special meeting Tuesday evening, citing feedback they’d heard from community members after the board first approved the supplemental levy – totaling $17.6 million over two years – at a meeting Feb. 28.
“Our population is asking for that choice,” Assistant Superintendent Hazel Bauman said.
The expiring levy that the proposed one is to replace was for $14.6 million over two years, and board members said they’ve heard many questions about the need for the additional $3 million.
“It’s a very complex situation to sell an increase in the levy amount,” Bauman said. “Not impossible, but complex.”
Questions about how the proposal will be presented to the public emerged among board members. When the board initially voted on the levy amount last month, the additional $3 million was earmarked for inflationary costs, technology maintenance, more teachers to reduce class sizes and teacher training, among other things.
But board Vice Chairwoman Edie Brooks pointed out that some of those things, such as inflationary cost increases and technology maintenance needs, won’t go away just because the money isn’t there. The district will have to pay for those things somehow and make cuts elsewhere.
Brooks pushed for the board to come up with a detailed list of exactly what would be cut if the additional $3 million isn’t approved.
“I think we have to be open to the public,” Brooks said.
“Are we locked into our cuts if we do that?” board member Christie Wood asked.
“Absolutely,” Brooks responded.
That’s where the trouble starts, district officials and board members say, because it can be very difficult to decide what to cut and keep at this time because the state budget hasn’t been finalized.
Plus, making $1.5 million in cuts each year over the two-year life of the levy would be a long and arduous process that should be undertaken only if absolutely necessary, Superintendent Harry Amend said.
District Business Manager Steve Briggs agreed.
“I think we need to be careful in terms of how specific we get, and I think we need to be careful of how general we are,” Briggs said. “The fact of the matter is I’m still anticipating that the increase will pass. We’ve had a history of support in this district.”
Brooks and the rest of the board agreed to emphasize on the printed ballot and in discussion with the community that not having the additional $3 million means cuts across the district, not just in the areas earmarked in the original proposal.
Another emphasis point will be on how the Coeur d’Alene district’s tax rate compares with other districts. The statewide average is $3.98 per $1,000 of property value; the tax rate for Coeur d’Alene is $1.12. How the proposed levy will change that rate depends on how the tax base grows. If it stays the same – which is unlikely – the $17.6 million levy would cost 18 cents more per $1,000. If the tax base expands, the rate won’t increase as much.
The levy needs a simple majority to pass.