Voters in Nooksack Valley School District are being asked to approve two levies to help pay for the cost of education, technology and maintenance of school roofs and floors.
If voters OK the Feb. 14 ballot measures, the four-year levies would bring in $3.7 million in 2013 to $4.2 million in subsequent years through 2016.
Both levies need a simple majority of 50.1 percent to pass.
Like the other seven school districts in Whatcom County, Nooksack Valley puts levy requests before voters still not knowing what additional cuts may be coming its way but planning for a worst-case scenario that includes the total loss of state levy equalization dollars.
That would be a hit of $600,000, according to Superintendent Mark Johnson.
"We still don't know, even as of today, what's going to happen with that," he said Thursday, Feb. 2, of levy equalization funding, which helps property-tax poor districts that can't raise much revenue through taxes.
The school district already has withstood more than $1.2 million in federal and state cuts in funding in recent years - including $150,000 in levy equalization money.
Yet Johnson holds out hope for the district's funding even as the state continues to grapple with a nearly $1 billion budget shortfall - primarily because the state Supreme Court ruled in January that the state failed to meet its constitutional obligation to amply pay for basic public education.
"Given the recent state Supreme Court ruling, we are hopeful that no further cuts to equalization occur and our tax rates will be even lower because of it," he said. "If some or all of it (levy equalization) does remain after this year, the amount we will collect in local taxes will go down by that amount."
Which is why the district's literature (found at the district's website) about the projected overall tax rates includes a lower-end range than what voters will find on their ballots.
Here's a look each levy.
• The educational maintenance and operations levy would replace the current levy that expires at the end of 2012.
Like the current one, it would make up about 20 percent of the district's budget and would pay for educational needs such as textbooks, class-size reduction and support, building operations and extra-curricular activities that include athletics and music.
It "will allow us to maintain the quality educational program our community expects," Johnson said.
• The technology and capital projects levy is new.
It would pay for major maintenance and needed technology, such as classroom computers and replacing a 25-year-old phone system. The state doesn't pay for classroom technology.
In addition to school roofs and floors, this levy would pay for energy retrofitting that would save future energy costs.
Johnson said it "is critical in that it will ensure that we are maintaining the quality facilities our community has invested in."
The levy would be a pay-as-you-go approach and, unlike a bond, would not require interest payments, officials have said.
This levy would begin the same year a bond is paid off. (The last bond payment is December 2013.) For that reason, its proposed collection in 2013 is lower - at $100,000 - before climbing to $500,000 in the remaining years.
Even with both levies and the last of the bond payment, the overall projected tax rate would be lower starting in 2013, when it is expected to be $5.67 per $1,000 of a home's assessed value, compared to $5.85 for 2012.
That means the owner of a $200,000 home would pay an estimated $1,170 in school property taxes in 2012, but $1,134 in 2013. That figure would drop even further in the remaining years of the levy.
"Our overall tax rates are going to go down significantly because we are making the last bond issue payment in 2013," Johnson said.
When voters approve a levy, they are approving the maximum amount of money a district can collect in property taxes from residents. The tax rate may fluctuate, but the bottom-line amount the district receives can't be above what voters approve.
NOOKSACK LEVIES
Here are the estimated overall tax rates property owners in Nooksack Valley School District would pay if voters on Feb. 14 approve two levies, one a replacement levy for maintenance and operations and the other for technology and capital projects.
• 2013: $5.67 per $1,000 of a home's assessed value.*
• 2014: $5.09.
• 2015: $5.09.
• 2016: $5.09.
*The projected tax rate includes a bond, which will be paid off in 2013. That bond adds another $1.19 per $1,000 of a home's assessed value.
Learn more online at nv.k12.wa.us/nvsd.
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