PORT ANGELES — A four-year maintenance and operations levy totaling $30.1 million will appear on the Feb. 6 ballot, the Port Angeles School District board unanimously decided Monday night.
The levy, if approved, will allow the North Olympic Peninsula’s largest school district to fill the gap between state and federal revenues and the actual costs of operating schools and educating students.
“This is probably the most complex decision you’ve made since I’ve been here,” sixth-year Superintendent Gary Cohn told the School Board at Monday’s meeting at the Central Services building in Port Angeles.
“The overriding factor is the loss of levy equalization funding that the state wants us to make up in the levy.”
The levy accounts for about 17 percent of the district’s annual maintenance and operations budget.
Assessed valuation
In the past, the school district always has known about how much the district’s total assessed property valuation will increase, Cohn said.
The district also has always received equalization money from the state and never has approached the so-called levy lid, he said.
The district will receive $761,354 in levy equalization funding from the state this year.
Cohn said the district now must strike a balance that protects students, taxpayers and projects for four years while staying under the levy lid and replacing that lost levy equalization money.
Voters in February will be asked to consider a new levy that has maximum annual collection amounts of $7.51 million in 2008; $7.71 million in 2009; $7.49 million in 2010 and $7.43 million in 2011.
The estimated tax rates per $1,000 of assessed valuation are $2.37 in 2008; $2.27 in 2009; $2.04 in 2010; and $1.89 in 2011.
The current rate on the levy that expires in 2007 is $2.98 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
The rates decline as property assessments increase across the district.