GCD school levy to be decided Nov. 8 

Local voters will decide if the Grand Coulee Dam School District will receive levy funding supported by property taxes in the election that wraps up on Nov. 8.

The levy resolution approved by the school board seeks only $2 per $1,000 of assessed property value from 2023 through 2025, compared to the current rate of $4.20.

The levy collection rate for the GCDSD has fluctuated in the past 10 years, with a $100,000 home paying $437 to the district from 2012 through 2015, $395 from 2016-2018, $320 for 2019-20, and $420 from 2021-2022.

The new levy collection rate of just $2 would drop the collection amount by more than half, or $200 a year for a $100,000 home.

The new proposed educational levy seeks to collect $721,000 in 2023. That's $636,000 less than three expiring levies are collecting in 2022.

The new levy then seeks to collect $775,500 in 2024, and $814,000 in 2025 as increases in total district property value are anticipated.

Grant County Assessor Melissa McKnight told The Star earlier this year that the total valuation in the school district, spanning properties in Grant, Okanogan, Douglas, and Lincoln counties and excluding senior exempt properties, is $335,543,725, an increase of $27,740,468 from 2021, about an 8% gain in taxable value.

Superintendent Paul Turner explained previously to The Star that an educational levy helps pay for educational services ranging from preschool to special education and more.

The educational levy is also tied to about $700,000 more per year from the state that the district doesn't get if voters don't approve a levy.

If approved, the levy itself would bring in roughly $2.3 million over the next three years. The additional $700,000 a year from the state would bring in another $2.1 million, for a total of $4.4 million over that three-year span.

Year EP&O Levy Capital Tax per

$/$1,000 Levy $100,000 2012 $4.37 $437 

2013 $4.37 $437 

2014 $4.37 $437 

2015 $4.37 $437 

2016 $3.95 $395 

2017 $3.95 $395 

2018 $3.95 $395 

2019 $1.50 $1.70 $320 

2020 $1.50 $1.70 $320 

2021 $2.50 $1.70 $420 

2022 $2.50 $1.70 $420 

2023 $2.00 $200