Ballots are going out in today’s mail for Feb. 9 special elections on proposed levies in Sequim and Cape Flattery school districts, as well as a proposed levy lid lift for the Joyce Fire Department.
The Sequim School District levy measure will, if approved by voters, raise $4.05 million for Sequim’s public schools next year, $4.9 million in 2012 and $5.78 million in 2013.
The Cape Flattery School District levy measure would extend the district’s present maintenance and operations tax levy for another four years.
The $350,000 per year levy is for the same amount currently collected, said Superintendent Kandy Ritter.
The Joyce Fire Department, also known as Fire Protection District No. 4, is asking voters to approve a levy lid lift to fund fire protection equipment, equipment maintenance and operations.
Ballots are due by Feb. 9. They can be mailed or taken to the drop box at the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
Sequim schools
In the Sequim school district, which stretches from Blue Mountain Road through Sequim to Gardiner, the proposed levy replaces the current one –which expires at the end of this year — and raises the tax rate.
The 2010 levy rate is at 77 cents per $1,000 in assessed valuation, so the owner of a $250,000 home is paying $192.50 this year toward public education in the Sequim district.
The proposed rate in 2011 is 98 cents per $1,000, so if the levy measure is approved, that homeowner will pay $52.50 more, for a property tax bill of $245 next year.
The proposed rate for 2012 is $1.19 per thousand, or $297.50 for the $250,000 home.
In 2013, the rate peaks at $1.40, for $350 in property taxes.
The Sequim School District Board of Directors and the Citizens for Sequim Schools advocacy coalition, have said that levy dollars will pay teachers’ salaries, fund an after-school homework-help program and restore positions, such as the school nurse, that were cut when state funding was slashed last year.
The higher levy is necessary, advocates say, in the wake of deep cuts in staffing, supplies, technology and extracurricular activities.
If the levy doesn’t pass this February, Sequim school board President Sarah Bedinger added, the board will try again by placing another levy proposal on the ballot.
April 27 is the soonest another levy election could be held, said Clallam County Elections Supervisor Shoona Radon.
The school board would have to file its resolution by March 12, she added.
More information about the Sequim measure is available on the school district’s Web site, www.Sequim.k12.wa.us.
Cape Flattery
The levy request for the Cape Flattery School District would not raise more money than is being collected now.
“It will be the exact same amount. We will not be raising it at all,” Ritter said.
The levy funds would supplement money received by the district from the state Legislature.
Levy funds would go toward drug and alcohol programs, the school nursing service, campus maintenance, technology, transportation, library and media center resources and textbooks and supplies, Ritter said.
The estimated tax rate now is $2.33 per $1,000 assessed valuation, Ritter said.
That means that the owner of a $200,000 home would pay about $466 in taxes per year.
The school district also receives some funds through timber taxes and the rate would go up or down depending on how much is received from that source, she said.
Joyce Fire Department
If passed, the levy lid lift proposition would authorize the district to restore its 2010 regular property tax levy rate to an amount not to exceed 76 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation for collection in 2011.
The fire district unsuccessfully attempted a levy lid lift in November 2008.
Without a public vote, the district was limited to a 1 percent increase in property taxes per year because of Initiative 747, which passed in 2001.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.
Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladaily news.com.