Districts count on levies

BOISE – Dozens of Idaho school districts are holding elections on supplemental property tax measures this spring, and many of these operations and maintenance levies have passed.

School district leaders say the state doesn’t give schools enough money to operate, and that’s why close to half of Idaho school districts go to voters for property tax increases to cover the basics. In the northern and north-central parts of the state, 14 districts went to voters for supplemental levies last week, and all passed. Two failed earlier this spring.

Former longtime state Superintendent of Schools Jerry Evans said that when he started as the Caldwell school superintendent in 1969, his district was one of a handful that had supplemental levies. But the number has been growing ever since.

“The more inadequate the funds are from the state, the more supplemental levies you will see,” Evans said. “That’s just history.”

Evans, a Republican, said the danger is that wealthier districts with higher taxable values can pass those levies, while poorer districts can’t. “What you’re doing is creating a greater and greater division between the haves and the have-nots,” he said. “And so, 20 years down the road, we will have another school funding equity lawsuit, and it will prevail.”

Teton County in eastern Idaho ran its first-ever supplemental levy election in March, asking voters to approve an additional $2 million a year in property taxes for the next two years. It passed with 62.5 percent approval.

“The scary part, and I know it’s scary, is we’re putting about $1.2 million of this levy into salaries,” said Superintendent Gordon Woolley. “So, every two years we’re going to live and die by this supplemental levy. … I think we’re in a situation now that we’ll have to ask our voters to approve that supplemental (levy) every two years.”

Roughly half of Idaho’s 114 school districts asked voters for the extra tax money in 2006. Last year at this time, 33 supplemental levies had passed, two had failed and 20 were still in effect from the previous year.

Though the state Department of Education says it won’t have figures on this year’s levies until it compiles a year-end report in September, news reports from around the state and a few phone calls turned up reports of 28 supplemental levy elections scheduled in Idaho school districts this spring. At least two of those have failed. An additional 14 levies from last year are continuing for another year.

The preliminary reports show that Idaho likely is on track with the long-term trend: more and more districts going to voters to help fund basic school operations.

State Superintendent Tom Luna declined to be interviewed for this article. Instead, his office issued this statement: “Every school district in Idaho has different needs, which is why districts are run at the local level through school boards. School boards use supplemental levies to maintain a local flavor in individual districts and enhance the offerings at their schools.”

That may be the case in Coeur d’Alene, where the levy approved on Tuesday partly helps fund advanced learning and remediation programs, school resource and nurse positions, electives, and extracurricular activities. But in a district like Orofino, where enrollment is declining, schools are closing and staffing is being cut, the levy provides one out of every seven dollars in the district’s basic operating budget.

Voters there approved a $1.3 million supplemental levy last week with a 72 percent approval. That was the same dollar amount as the previous year’s levy, so it didn’t increase taxes. But Superintendent Dale Durkee said, “We would be looking at major, major changes if that did not pass.”

He said, “We go one year at a time, so there is always uncertainty as to what you can plan on or not, and it is a significant part of our budget.”

The Orofino levy was for the same amount voters agreed to the previous year. In some districts, including Cottonwood, Nez Perce and Craigmont, this year’s levies are lower.

Woolley, in Teton County, said: “I don’t think we’re asking for anything elaborate here at all. We’re just trying to run the basic program and keep our teachers here and provide up-to-date, not fancy, but just up-to-date technology.”

Supplemental levies require only simple majority approval, unlike construction bonds for long-term debt, which require a two-thirds supermajority.

Districts can ask voters for supplemental levies for any amount, for any purpose, but the levies can last for no more than two years. Most are for one year.

Districts that have had supplemental levies equal to 20 percent of their general operating budget or more for seven consecutive years can ask voters to make those levies permanent. Five districts – Boise, Blaine County, Moscow, Lewiston and Mullan – have done so.

Cliff Green, executive director of the Idaho School Boards Association, said when he toured school districts this spring, most were talking about levies – more so than in the past.

“I get that sense, absolutely,” Green said. “I know that there are districts that are struggling. … It’s really the only source of additional funding they have.”

Green called the tax override votes “an integral part of providing quality education for the kids. … Local patrons should have the ability to supplement state funds if they choose to do so.”

State Senate Education Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, agreed. “I view them as a positive tool,” Goedde said. “There will never be enough money appropriated on a state basis to allow every district to fund the programs that they want to offer kids in their district. And a supplemental levy provides a means for the district to go to voters and say, ‘This is what we’d like to do, will you help us pay for it?’ “

But Evans said, “About half of the districts have supplemental levies: What does that mean? The other half’s getting by. What’s happening to the expenditure per pupil? What’s happening to the educational program? It is growing more and more disparate.”