Don’t let schools go over levy cliff

Public school officials have a long wish list for legislators this session, but only one item is considered a must: Fix the so-called “levy cliff” looming on the horizon.

If that doesn’t happen this session, local school superintendents say they would have to start planning early next year for cuts in the 2017-18 school year – including figuring out which teachers to lay off. Pink slips would have to go out by mid-May 2017, creating turmoil and anxiety.

Even if the levy cliff issue is resolved at the last minute in the 2017 session – and last minute is the Legislature’s modus operandi – it likely could mean that many teachers who get pink slips would either leave the district or the profession altogether. With an already dire teacher shortage facing many districts, that’s a scenario administrators don’t want to think about.

So what is the levy cliff?

It goes back to 2010, when the Legislature lifted the levy lid, the limit on how much most school districts can collect in property taxes. The limit had been 24 percent of the amount a district received in state and federal funding. But lawmakers, recognizing districts’ recession-related distress as well as the Legislature’s inability to come up with a way to fully fund basic education, lifted the limit to 28 percent.

That levy lid returns to 24 percent for levies in calendar year 2018. But because school years don’t follow calendar years, school officials have to start planning far in advance if they’re to cope with less revenue.

How much less? According to the Washington Association of School Administrators, about $480 million statewide in 2018. A spokesman for the Puget Sound Educational Service District said Pierce County schools alone could lose $90 million in revenue.

In the Tacoma School District, the loss would be about $26 million, Superintendent Carla Santorno told The News Tribune editorial board. Bethel Superintendent Tom Seigel says his district would be out $10.2 million – forcing the district to send out 114 pink slips, mostly to recently hired teachers. The loss of so many teachers would be devastating in a district that anticipates enrollment rising by 3,000 in the next eight years.

Although a Senate bill to extend the levy lid limit lift by two years failed in the state Senate, all is not lost. House Bill 2698, which would extend it one year, passed in the state House 91-7 and can be brought to the Senate floor for consideration.

The overwhelming support in the House reflects bipartisan recognition of how important it is for school districts to maintain current levels of funding as well as have stability in their budgeting and hiring decisions.

Sadly, it also reflects the fact that lawmakers are unlikely to address their obligation to fully fund K-12 education under the state Supreme Court’s McCleary decision until – does this sound familiar? – the last minute.

Some opponents of extending the levy lid lift argue that the specter of the cliff would focus lawmakers on their responsibility to address McCleary. In other words, let school districts’ plight prod the Legislature into getting off the stick. But that would mean uncertainty for school districts and the real threat of having to lay off scores of teachers.

That shouldn’t be what it takes to get action on McCleary. It’s only fair that if lawmakers can’t come up with the money for schools until the court-ordered date of 2018, then at least they shouldn’t hamstring school districts from raising it themselves.

This story was originally published February 18, 2016 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Don’t let schools go over levy cliff."