WHY LOCAL LEVIES AND BONDS

School districts in Washington raise a significant portion of their operating budget funds from local property taxes, and nearly all of their capital investment requirements (buildings and major equipment). Schools today cannot run without this irreplaceable funding source. These funds are generated through carefully calculated and accountable levy or bond measures.

A levy measure funds projects directly using money collected from taxpayers. Levies require a simple majority of 50 percent approval. Levy dollars pay for items that are used right away, not for long-term assets. For example, the Educational Programs & Operations Levy raises money for the general operating fund, paying for items like supplies and additional staff.

A bond measure uses a loan that is paid off over time through taxpayer collections and pays for long-term assets, like new buildings. Bond measures and requires a supermajority voter approval, which is a 60 percent approval rate. They are like a mortgage for school districts.

Lake Washington asks their voters every four years to approve up to three school funding measures:

Educational Programs & Operations Levy (these become links to pages eventually)
Capital Projects Levy
Capital Building Bond

The need:

State funding for basic education has not kept up with the need over the years. What was once expected to pay for a real basic education has not kept pace with either inflation or the changing expectations of public schools. Increasing federal and state requirements for schools have not come with the funding needed to make them happen. As a result, state funding now pays for just 50 percent of Lake Washington School District’s general operating fund, and 10 percent of that is directed to specific programs.

The result is a heavy reliance on the Educational Programs & Operations Levy dollars to make up the difference. A program that was designed to allow school districts to purchase “extras” now is paying for about 40 percent of the district’s costs for everything from insurance to textbooks to utilities, not exactly “extras.”

The state does not provide funding for the two areas covered in the Capital Projects Levy, technology and facilities projects. So it is entirely up to school districts including Lake Washington to come up with the money locally for computers, networks, projectors, and any other technology used to help students learn or to help the district operate efficiently.

A new definition of basic education but no funding

The state legislature acknowledged in last year’s session that its definition of basic education was completely out of date and passed legislation that redefines basic education to include many of the items that are now paid for by levies, both the EP&O and capital projects levies. That’s the good news: the state now recognizes that the items your local levy dollars have been purchasing are part of the real basic education.

Now here’s the bad news: there was no funding mechanism attached to the bill. There are committees in Olympia working on figuring out how to pay for a basic education under the new, more realistic definition, but it will take time for their work to be completed, a law to be passed, and new funding measures to begin working. Most proposals call for a gradual change: increasing funding to priority items over time. So it is likely to be many years before there is full funding for basic education in our state.

At the same time, the economic recession has caused a decline in state revenue, which resulted in cuts to state funding for public schools this year. This combination makes passage of these levies even more important now than ever before.

Bonds: the district’s mortgage

While the levies are critical for continuing operation of our school district’s programs, bonds make it possible for the district to borrow money to construct new buildings or major additions. Bond measures have enabled the district to invest in replacing many of our oldest schools and in building new schools where development adds substantial populations of students. The result is new school buildings that are provide environments conducive to learning, are environmentally friendly and cheaper to operate.