Voters making local tax decisions

By Pat Jenkins

The Dispatch

The mood of south Pierce County voters toward taxes, schools and fire departments should be clear by this time next week when the results are in from the special election for the Eatonville and Bethel school districts and Graham Fire and Rescue.

Voting ends Feb. 13 on Eatonville schools' two levies for education programs and building maintenance, the Bethel district's bond measure for new and improved schools and two levies, and Graham Fire's levy for personnel and equipment.

Combined, the proposals are for a $614 million commitment of property taxes. The majority of it is a $443 million bond for Bethel.

Passing the bond will require a 60 percent supermajority of voters in the Bethel district. Bethel’s two levies, the two in Eatonville and the one for Graham Fire and Rescue will pass or fail with anything over 50 percent of the votes in their respective constituencies.

Information provided by both districts about their levies points out that local, voter-decided funding enables the schools to pay for programs beyond those which the state covers.

Feb. 13 is the last day that voters can return their ballots by mail or in official dropboxes provided by Pierce County. County election officials predict 30 percent of the 408,594 registered voters will cast ballots for propositions in 15 school and fire districts.

By last Friday, 13 percent of voters in the Eatonville district had turned in ballots. Bethel and Graham returns were at 8 and 9 percent, respectively.

EATONVILLE

Eatonville schools are asking for a two-year levy and another levy that would be in effect for six years. Together, they would provide about $10 million dollars from property taxes for school services and programs.

Supporters of the measures note the two-year, $7.5 million educational programs and operations levy wouldn’t be a new tax and would be assessed at a lower rate than the one it would replace. Renewing the levy would pay for teachers and instructional assistants , school buses, gifted-student and advanced placement curriculum, special education, remediation and English as a Second Language programs, books and other learning materials, training and lesson-planning for teachers, and extracurricular activities such as sports and music.

The six-year, $2.5 million capital levy is described by supporters as serving essentially the same thing all property owners deal with – the cost of keeping buildings in good condition.

If both levies pass, property owners would be taxed a total of $2.76 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

BETHEL

Bethel voters are deciding on a $443 million bond to build a new high school and two new elementary schools and do major makeovers of two existing high schools (Bethel and Challenger) and improvements or expansions of 10 other schools. The projects would alleviate overcrowding and keep up with rising enrollments, according to bond supporters.

The dollar amount of the bond is $200 million higher than one that voters rejected twice in 2016. But according to the district, tax bills for schools will go down because under state law, Bethel’s levy collection rate per $1,000 of assessed value rate is dropping.

One of Bethel’s two levies (educational programs and operations) is for classroom needs and sports, including labor contracts, special education, transportation, substitute teachers, training days for teachers, athletics other and extracurricular activities. The other levy is to pay for learning-related use of technology such as iPads, WiFi, and related equipment and personnel.

GRAHAM FIRE

Graham Fire and Rescue’s maintenance and operations levy would generate $17 million over a four-year period to help meet the cost of personnel and equipment. Supporters say the funding is necessary for fire protection and emergency medical services to keep up with a 19 percent increase in the last 10 years of the number of people living in the fire district’s service area, now home to about 60,000 people.

The approximately $4.3 million per year that would be collected from 2019 to 2022 would be spent on hiring more firefighters and buying new fire trucks and medical aid vehicles.