MLSD levy election today

MOSES LAKE — Ballots are due today in a special election for a two-year levy proposal for the Moses Lake School District. 

If the levy is approved, property owners would pay $2 per $1,000 of assessed property value. If it’s approved it would generate $15.78 million in the first year and $18.94 million in the second year.

A property owner with land valued at $300,000 would pay $600 per year. The owner of property valued at $350,000 would pay $700 per year in property taxes.

Because it’s an EP&O levy, it requires a bare majority, 50% plus one vote, to pass. 

District voters rejected the same proposal in a February special election. The Moses Lake School Board voted 5-0 to resubmit it to voters. 

If it’s approved, it would replace a three-year levy passed by district voters in 2021.

The 2024 proposal is 50 cents higher than the 2021 levy. District Superintendent Monty Sabin said the increase reflects a combination of declining state revenue and increasing costs. Sabin estimated the district would lose about $7.5 million in state funding in the 2024-25 school year. 

Moses Lake, like other school districts, uses the levy approved by local voters to plug gaps in state or federal funding or pay for things not funded by the state.

As an example, MLSD has more security staff than the state allocation would pay for, Sabin said in an earlier interview. It also pays for more nurses, counselors and psychologists than the state allocation would fund. 

Levy money pays for all extracurricular activities, from grade school field trips to high school band trips and speech competitions, to middle school and high school sports.