How much do people pay to support their schools?

How much do people pay to support their local schools? After a fundraising dinner cooked entirely by the school's culinary arts students, citizens in Lake Roosevelt Jr/Sr High's HUB Thursday took in those facts and more on the upcoming school levy election.

Cory Plager, of D.A. Davidson, a bonding company involved in building schools across the state, shared information he gathered from officials in counties included in the Grand Coulee Dam School District and from the state.

"This is no opinion of mine," he assured a few dozen people attending. "This is data based on information from the county treasurers, county assessors, county auditors and from the state."

He noted the district is "a little bit unique in four counties" with several "pockets of communities" that it serves.

Pager's information included the history of levies in the area for decades, comparisons of current school district tax rates in local counties, the different types of levies there are, and more. He included lots of charts in a PowerPoint presentation.

The levy voters are considering in the election ending Feb. 11 is an "educational programs and operations" or "EP&O" levy. They can pass with just one vote over 50 percent, a simple majority, to supplement basic education, athletics, and other programs to a maximum rate of $2.50 per thousand dollars of assessed property value.

The district is asking for approximately a $2.13 rate for four years, so a $100,000 property would be taxed at $213 a year.

Voters have passed all but two levies the district has proposed since 2003. Two of the 10 attempted failed in 2022, an EP&O and a Capital Projects levy, as the district asked for both at the same time. It resubmitted only the EP&O levy question to voters that November, when it passed by nearly 55%. The two that failed earlier in the year went down with only about a 44% approval rate.

Plager noted, with a chart, that 2022 was the year that levy approvals in the whole state dipped to only 87%, during the Covid years, from a normal passage rate in the 95% and above range since 2007.

The current rate of $1.88 for the district's EP&O levy is actually only part of the taxes paid to support schools. Add in what the state also taxes, plus and additional amount the state Legislature decided to take from local districts in 2018, and that total rate jumps to $4.55.

That's still down from the $7.08 that was collected in 2021 when voters passed an additional capital levy from 2019 through 2022, the year they decided not to renew it.

Superintendent Rod Broadnax said the district just got done spending a state capital (building and equipment) grant and other grants to upgrade the gym, another building, and more, so no capital levy was sought by the school board.

Plager showed comparisons of nearby school district current levy rates. Out of 44 districts in Grant, Okanogan, Lincoln and Douglas Counties, all of which the GCD district serves, 35 had lower EP&O rates, but only 13 had lower overall rates, and 24 had higher overall tax rates.

Rates in those districts range from $0.00 in Almira to $4.17 (rounded) in Davenport (including a capital levy and a bond).

A chart in Plager's PowerPoint presentation shows school tax rates in Grant County. - courtesy D.A. Davidson