Moses Lake levy request to go back to voters

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake School District voters will be asked to approve or reject an educational programs and operations levy in a special election April 23. Moses Lake School Board members approved the resubmission of the levy request on a unanimous vote Thursday. 

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

If the levy is approved, it would replace a three-year levy approved by district voters in 2021. 

Voters rejected the proposal by 147 votes, 3,758 no votes to 3,611 yes votes, in the election Feb. 13. Moses Lake Superintendent Monty Sabin said district officials asked the board to resubmit the same request because the district needs the money.

“In the 2023-24 school year, the levy equated to roughly 10% of our budget, which is around $15 million dollars,” Sabin said. “You can imagine, if we lose levy dollars, we have to make some serious decisions.”

The levy would allow the district to maintain existing programs, he said.

“We put a lot of thought into this (proposal) when it went out to the voters,” he said. “We’re asking for what we need, not necessarily what we want. This levy would not increase staffing, it would not increase programming, it would maintain what we currently have.”

The $2 levy assessment is an increase of 50 cents from the 2021 levy. Sabin said that’s a response to a mix of declining funding and increasing costs.

Moses Lake received a boost in funding in about 2018 to help offset the cost of living in the district, Sabin said. But over time that funding has been reduced, and will end in the 2024-25 school year.

“So that equates to, roughly, about $4.5 million, just in that,” he said.

As revenue has declined, Sabin said, costs have increased. He cited the district’s insurance coverage as an example.

“Our insurance this last year increased by $350,000. I’m not saying the insurance cost $350,000, I’m saying the increase was $350,000. That’s just one example,” he said.

“We put a lot of thought into this levy rate. We did not do it lightly,” he said. “But according to our calculations, we really need this to maintain our services.”

Board member Paul Hill asked if district officials planned to research why the levy failed.

“Do we have anything in place to move forward from now through mid-April to find out why our community voted it down, and to address those issues so it doesn’t happen again?” Hill asked. 

Sabin said administrators are working on a survey to be submitted to district patrons to ask their opinions, among other things. That data will help district officials answer those questions.

“We’ve already had discussions about things we can do differently to get the message out,” Sabin said. “Of course, as a school district, we can only communicate facts about the levy. We cannot encourage people to vote a certain way.”

He said district officials have been reevaluating their approach to the levy. 

“We’ve already put a lot of thought into this just this last week. It’s been a difficult week. It’s made us think deeply about how we can do things better in our communications around the levy,” he said. 

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.