Preliminary election results released Tuesday night show the Edmonds School District’s replacement programs and operations levy passing with 60.53% voter approval. The levy requires a simple majority to pass.
“Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote, and all those who volunteered to share the importance of this levy,” said District Superintendent Dr. Gustavo Balderas. “The passing of this levy allows our district to provide each and every student we serve with the best educational opportunities to set them up for success.”
The district said the levy aims to bridge the gap and cover costs for staff and programs at all schools that are not fully funded by state or federal dollars. Balderas said the levy is the second-largest revenue source for the district and makes up about 15% of the budgeted general fund. It would renew funding for four years, through 2026. The measure would renew the expiring levy of $1.49 per $1,000 of assessed property value that voters approved in 2018.
“We are committed to be fiscally prudent and we appreciate our community’s longstanding history of supporting our schools,” said Dr. Nancy Katims, school board president.
The next round of election results will be released at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Clearly the voters once again don’t know what they are voting for. $1.49 for every $1000 assessed?! Ouch. That information needs to be on the ballot. And why are we passing levy’s? Doesn’t the lotto money all go to schools? Odd.
The information was in the voters pamplet. Just like other school districts. Some others are 1.70 and 2.10. Edmonds was one of the cheaper ones and it’s a renewal of what was already there. Some districts are putting new ones on top of old ones that are still in effect.
That’s true it’s in the pamphlet. But The true cost is not on the ballot. The voters deserve to see that valuation on the ballot, we shouldn’t have to dig for it, why hide it? Probably because it wouldn’t pass!
The Ballot shows $1.50/1000 for the tax to raise for 2023 $63,500,000. The other 3 years are also shown. This is the same information shown in the voters’ pamphlet.
https://snohomishcountywa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/87479/Sample-Ballot?bidId=
Above is a link to a sample ballot for reference. Give it a read.
I don’t know about you Jamie but my ballot was NOT 12 pages long and did NOT offer that information?
Although I voted against this to protest vast over property taxation by our state and local governments, I do recognize that it is probably good it is passing from the taking care of the kids viewpoint. At the personal level just our home property tax will probably go over 8K this coming year. There is no way that we can begin to pay this out of our discretionary income and still afford to travel, eat out some, go fishing, or to the movies. Luckily, we have investment funds we can tap, just for the privilege of continuing to live in Edmonds. This is wrong in my view and I will keep saying so anyway I can; anywhere I can. I’m half seriously thinking about trying to start a Snohomish County Home Owners Association to hire a lobbyist to go to Olympia as an advocate against more property taxation. Maybe even try to promote a property tax rebellion for a couple years by withholding taxes. If enough people did that I suspect things would have to change some in favor of the home owners who seem to be footing more and more of the bills for what we all need to survive and live a decent life.
It would be nice if there were a more equitable way to pay for levies. It basically falls on homeowners yet every voter — including those with no “skin in the game” — can vote. I’m all for allowing everyone to vote, but it does seem weird to me that the only ones who pay are property owners.
Isn’t there a better way?
As long as property owners are regarded as the easy prey available to the politicians nothing will change I suspect.
Because of the way we finance our homes with property taxes usually woven into the payments, these taxes are hidden in a way. People just view a house payment as a house payment, not taxation. Similarly, renters just view their payments as lodging costs but these do include property taxes which the landlord must pass on to his tenants in order to make a profit. Everyone but the out and out homeless pay huge property taxes whether they realize it or not. If more people had paid off mortgages and realized just how much they were really paying in taxation, there would be more pressure put on the politicians to look elsewhere for revenue. If our law forced landlords to inform their tenants how much of their rent went to property taxes they would have a better handle on how they vote affects their cost of simple lodging. Our whole system of never ending more taxation and more borrowing against the future is dependent on most of the population being financially ignorant and it really works, or not, depending on how you look at it. It certainly works for the bankers, real estate industry and politicians among us.