State Journal
Wash. State Schools Reap Ballot Success in Tax-Levy Voting
It may have passed by the barest of margins last November, but a constitutional amendment in Washington state aimed at making it easier to approve school levies already appears to be having the effect supporters intended.
In the first test of the new rules, voters on Feb. 19 approved more than 50 property-tax-rate measures to fill out school districts’ operating and technology budgets, Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, the Democrat who chairs the state Senate’s education committee, told the Yakima Herald-Republic.
She said all those measures would have failed under the old rules, which required a 60 percent supermajority vote for passage. The new threshold for passage is 50 percent plus one vote.
Of 10 districts in Yakima County that put levies before voters, all won—but only six with at least a 60 percent majority, according to the county auditor’s office.
Back in November, county voters had soundly rejected—by 62 percent to 38 percent—the constitutional amendment that last month allowed the four other districts to emerge as winners. Statewide, the measure passed by just 50.6 percent to 49.4 percent.
The amendment did not affect the 60 percent supermajority required for districts to issue school bonds, for long-term debt.
Not all Washington state districts were successful in passing their tax levies under the new rules. Several districts in Thurston County, for example, failed to break 50 percent of the vote.
Elsewhere the requirement of a simple majority is far from a guarantee that levy proposals will pass. In Ohio, according to the state education department, voters rejected 88 out of 165 school levy proposals on ballots last week.
After last month’s Washington state outcomes, some editorial writers suggested that voters who generally oppose school tax proposals had been complacent about the narrower margin required and had not turned out to vote.
Additional levy proposals will be on ballots in special school elections scheduled in Washington for this week, April 22, and May 20, according to state election officials.
Vol. 27, Issue 27, Page 17
Access selected articles, e-newsletters and more!
Viewed
Emailed
Recommended
Commented
Sponsored Whitepapers
• Best Practices in Information Management, Reporting and Analytics for Education
- Common Core Literacy Assessment Developer - Part Time
- The Equity Project (TEP) Charter School, New York, NY
- Chief Innovation Officer
- The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE®), Washington, DC
- Train Brilliant Math Students
- Art of Problem Solving, San Diego, CA
- MINNEAPOLIS ACADEMY Executive Director
- MINNEAPOLIS ACADEMY, Minneapolis, MN
- Principal - Chicago Metro Area West
- The Menta Group, Hillside, IL



We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.