How did that happen?
During Clark County’s worst recession in decades, with employment and home values still sliding, just how did eight school tax levy measures on Tuesday’s ballot win passage — most by a wide margin?
How could the Ridgefield and Vancouver school districts score 68-69 percent approval, just as if good times still ruled?
Or Battle Ground convince taxpayers to chip in nearly 50 percent more for schools next year than in 2010?
Does the impressive sweep, nearly replicated across the Evergreen State, signal some change in voters’ mood or give evidence we’ve turned some economic corner?
What are the near-term policy implications for state legislators or local governments?
By sifting ballot results and quizzing key participants and observers, some conclusions may be drawn:
• School advocates worked feverishly to get out the vote, tapping new methods and riding momentum from the historic 2008 election cycle;
• Voters place real value on schools and are willing to back them, even in tough times;
• Resist any conclusion that voters are more confident in the economy and thus willing to shoulder new tax hikes.
Of course, critical to the school levy tidal wave was Washington’s recently adopted simple majority rule.
Whereby school districts previously needed a 60 percent super-majority to pass levies (still required for construction bonds), since November 2007 it takes only 50 percent, plus one more vote.
That made all the difference in Battle Ground and La Center, where levies earned 53 percent and 54.5 percent, respectively — and in Washougal, which pulled about 58 percent (its Skamania County ballots included).
“We felt that we should be able to get a simple majority, even though we ran our campaign as if we needed to get the 60 percent,” said Anne Woods, parent volunteer and co-leader of Battle Ground’s citizens levy committee. Only once in 20 years has the district failed to win 50 percent support, she noted.
“Part of it was just convincing these people who have always voted for it in the past to vote for it this time,” Woods said.
Battle Ground boosters pulled out all stops to energize their base. Using results from the district’s last three levy attempts — including two failures — they zeroed in on several precincts where support has been 55 percent or higher, Woods said.
They deployed evening phone banks, doorbelling and mailers.
They reached out to the district’s conservative north end, but also to southern neighborhoods where it was believed residents without schoolchildren suffered a Battle Ground “identity crisis,” said Vicki Sparks, levy co-chairwoman with Woods.
Ultimately, 2,000 more votes were cast than in Battle Ground’s losing February 2006 effort. Turnout was 49.5 percent of registered voters.
Ridgefield rolled to a seemingly easy win. In fact, nothing was taken for granted, said Mark Burton, levy committee head. More time, effort and money went to reach school parents and registered voters than before, when mailers went out scatter-shot.
Extra attention went to “new arrivals” and very recent Ridgefield High School graduates, Burton said. Volunteers texted and used Facebook to reel in those young voters, many of whom attend college elsewhere but are registered here, he said.
Turnout was 51 percent, higher than recent marks. “I think our strategy worked really well,” Burton said.
(Countywide, turnout was near 44 percent, a bit less than that for a seven-levy election held in February 2006.)
Volunteer response was keen in the Evergreen district, say levy boosters. They credit fear over the economy’s impact on the levy, but also greater activism following a remarkable U.S. presidential race.
Sometimes 30 people showed up for nighttime phone banks, so many the group purchased extra cell phones, said Joni McAnally, committee co-leader. She counted 840 “fans” on the group’s Facebook page, including current Evergreen students.
McAnally was impressed by how many high school seniors were heard from. “Some of that kind of came to us naturally, from the 2008 election, all that young energy,” she said.
Selling ‘value’
What was the winning message? One refrain echoed across Clark County.
“Really stressing that it’s a replacement levy and it’s just critical, because of state (spending) cuts, that it get approved,” McAnally recited. “The goal, really, was just to maintain where we’re at.”
Said Ridgefield’s Burton: “When I talked to parents and community members, they saw it as a good return on investment. Yes, times are tight, people are still hurting, but they saw the value in it, so they still voted for it.”
Battle Ground voters knew well the impact of budget cuts the state “handed down last year and will again this year,” Sparks said. “Battle Ground just doesn’t have a cushion. I think voters understood that.
“We didn’t hide behind the fact this (levy) was larger,” she said. It did help that school board bickering was put to rest by a November election that inserted two new members, she said. “Having them united behind this was a big plus.”
Statewide trend
The phenomenon carried across Washington.
In 162 school districts, voters passed maintenance and operations levies worth $4.7 billion. Many earned well more than 60 percent, even in such conservative counties as Lewis, Douglas and Pierce.
There were two levy defeats, in districts with a combined enrollment of 1,230 students — smaller than any Clark County district on the ballot.
School district capital project and transportation levies also won big, by a count of 33 to two. Seven construction bond issues passed, versus four losses.
“It’s another indicator that our public does support schools,” said Dan Steele, director of governmental relations for the Washington’s association of school board directors.
“Because of this horrible economy, I think the levy committees really ramped it up,” said Steele, who had feared 10, 50 or even 60 levy failures. “I’ll tell you, going into Tuesday, I was concerned.”
Clues in I-1033 loss
Still, there may have been hints of the landslide as early as last autumn, said Dave Ammons, spokesman for Washington’s secretary of state.
That’s when voters rejected Tim Eyman’s Initiative 1033 — which would have placed sharp revenue restrictions on most local government bodies — “by 16 points as we headed into the worst recession in 50 years,” Ammons said. Voters chose not to hamstring officials who face tough choices, he said.
“(This) tells me that governments closest to the people still have a good connection with their taxpayers, most notably, this week, the school districts,” Ammons said Friday. “It was really a Super Tuesday” for them, he said.
“The message is that voters, when they see value for dollar, are still willing to tax themselves regardless of whether it’s good times or bad,” he said.
Tough act to follow?
Levy supporters on the ground say that’s the takeaway lesson, as well as warning for any new tax measure — whether something legislators spin out of Olympia this year or a Fort Vancouver Regional Library District levy lid request, now penciled in for August.
In an informal poll run by The Columbian that drew 476 Internet votes by late Saturday afternoon, only 3 percent of Web viewers agreed the economy has improved.
Another 86 percent agreed the economy is not better, but children deserved the school funding support, anyway.
“We really focused on telling voters this was really necessary,” said Woods, the Battle Ground levy advocate. “It was essential to the school district; it builds a stronger community.
“I don’t know that the library (or other groups) would be able to use similar arguments,” she said.
Howard Buck: 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.
