M&O levy ballots mailed

COLUMBIA BASIN — Grant and Adams County voters have the option of approving replacement maintenance and operations (M&O) levies for school districts.

Residents received ballots for the Feb. 9 election in the mail Friday. The levy enables school districts to purchase items or fund programs not supported by the state.

Grant County school districts seeking replacement maintenance and operations levies are Warden, Wilson Creek and Coulee-Hartline School District.

In Adams County, the Othello School District is seeking a levy replacement.

Coulee-Hartline

The district is asking voters to approve a $398,281 replacement maintenance and operations levy for 2011, with a $2.55 cost per thousand. The levy would remain the same for 2012.

Othello

Othello School board members set their levy amount at $2 million, with a $2.62 cost per $1,000 assessed valuation for 2011. The levy remains the same for the 2012 collection. “This is a modest increase over the prior levy, which hadn’t been raised for five or six years,” said George Juarez, superintendent. “Levies fund technology for us, allowing us to replace our hardware and software.”

The levy money is also funneled into maintaining school facilities, grounds, equipment and vehicles. It pays for school programs, buses, curriculum and textbooks.

Warden

The Warden School District is seeking a levy for 2010-2011 in the amount of $927,000, costing property owners $3.20 cost per $1,000 assessed valuation. This is the same cost as last year.

“Our biggest concern is the state budget and the deficit,” said Sandra Sheldon, superintendent. “Even with that looming in our future, we are going to keep the tax rate as low as possible.”

The levy is increasing by 3 percent in 2011-2012. The levy total is $955,000 and the charge increases $3.29 per thousand.

“This is a replacement levy and is vital to run our schools well,” Sheldon said. “It covers the costs of supplies, materials, some teaching staff, some athletics and extracurricular activities. It is ongoing.”

Sheldon said a capitol project levy covers facilities and construction only, while this levy deals with infrastructure costs, such as transportation.

“These are things not funded by the state that our local district has to come up with the funds for,” Sheldon said.

The maintenance levy is 9 percent of the district budget. If it passes, the district receives levy equalization dollars, another 9 percent of the budget total.

“If this doesn’t get passed we lose 18 percent of our local funds,” Sheldon said. “It is very important this levy continues to get passed.”

Wilson Creek

The proposed M&O levy for Wilson Creek in 2011 is $220,000, costing property owners $3.69 cost per $1,000 assessed valuation, which is 31 cents lower than previous years.

“We’ve reduced our dollar amount by quite a bit because we saw a lot of assessed values increase and we wanted to be sensitive to our community,” said superintendent Brad Smedley.

The total levy amount increased by $40,000 from previous years because value for the district’s tax base increased.

“We also needed to make up for budget cuts the state keeps making,” Smedley said.

The M&O levy is a replacement levy, responsible for funding items essential to schools the state does not fund, explained Smedley.

“The state and federal funds provide for only part of what we need to maintain basic education for kids,” Smedley said. “This levy makes up for the 16 to 20 percent shortfall.”

The levy increases to $237,000 in 2012, with a $3.98 cost per $1,000 assessed valuation.