Soap Lake School District replacement levy passes

EPHRATA — On its second and final ballot appearance for the year, the Soap Lake School District’s proposed four-year replacement maintenance and operations (M&O) levy was approved by district voters.

Results from the initial count of the April 26 special election ballots show the measure passing with an approval clip of about 55 percent. Of the 677 votes cast, 376 (55.54 percent) were in favor of the levy. The M&O levy requires a simple majority to be approved.

The Soap Lake School District put the measure back on the ballot for the April special election after it failed to garner 50 percent approval in the Feb. 9 special election. In its first run, the levy was overwhelmingly rejected by district voters, as 65.84 percent voted against it.

This time around, there was also a jump in voter participation. The 677 ballots counted Tuesday evening surpassed the final count of 606 votes cast in February.

The next ballot count for the current special election is slated to take place May 2, with results to be posted at approximately 3 p.m. that afternoon, according to the Grant County Auditor’s Office website. Final election results are expected to be certified May 6.

Washington state law allows school districts to run levy measures twice per calendar year, meaning if the Soap Lake School District’s proposed levy was not approved this time, the district would not have been able to ask voters to approve a new levy until February 2017.

If the election results stand, the approved four-year levy will replace the school district’s current M&O levy, which will expire next year. The current levy was approved by voters in 2012.

The replacement levy will provide the Soap Lake School District with more than $800,000 in each of the next four years for district maintenance and operations. Next year, the levy will bring in about $817,000 for the district. The tax will be levied at a rate of approximately $4.50 per $1,000 of assessed property valuation for district property owners. The levy’s value will increase incrementally over its four-year life. In its final year in 2020, it will provide the district with about $856,000 at a rate of $4.70 per $1,000.

Had the levy not passed, the district would have been forced to consider significant cutbacks to fit its operations within the constraints of a greatly reduced budget for the 2016-17 school year. The levy, in combination with state equalization dollars that become available upon the levy passing, accounts for about 20 percent of the Soap Lake School District’s annual budget.

However, as the election results stood Tuesday night, that obstacle will be avoided, thanks to district voters approving the replacement levy.

The school district also passed a two-year transportation levy in February that will provide the district with about $116,000 in each of the next two years for the purchase of two new school buses. The transportation levy passed with 51 percent approval in its first run.

Five other area school district had maintenance and operations levies approved by voters in their respective districts in the Feb. 9 special election, including the Odessa, Royal, Wahluke, Warden and Wilson Creek school districts.

Voters in the Coulee -Hartline School District also approved an M&O levy in the current special election. As of Tuesday night, 236 of the 331 votes cast, or 71.3 percent, were cast in approval of the levy.

The Coulee-Hartline School District’s approved levy will replace its expiring levy, as well. It will provide the district with slightly more than $540,000 each of the next two years, with an approximate levy rate of $2.55 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

Ryan Minnerly can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.