Voters in Evergreen Public Schools in February will vote on two school funding measures, including something new for the district: a technology levy.
The school board voted unanimously Tuesday to ask voters to approve an enrichment levy — which under new state funding legislation replaces maintenance and operations levies — and a technology levy to pay for digital curriculum, security technology, network infrastructure and maintaining district devices.
The enrichment levy will run for three years and, in accordance with new school funding legislation, will cost taxpayers $1.50 per $1,000 in assessed value. In total, the levy is estimated to bring $105.9 million into the district.
The technology levy will run for six years, and is expected to cost taxpayers about 37 cents per thousand in assessed value. That levy is expected to raise about $59.3 million over its lifetime.
That combined rate of $1.87 per thousand in assessed value is just shy of half of the district’s current maintenance and operations levy rate of $3.23 per thousand. That means a homeowner with a property valued at $250,000 can expect to pay about $467.50 in property taxes toward Evergreen school district levies.
Levy swap coming
Taxpayers across the state experienced sticker shock this year on seeing their property tax bills. The Legislature’s answer to the 2012 McCleary decision, which ruled the state was failing to fund basic education, was a levy swap raising state education taxes and capping local levies. But only the first part of that went into effect this year, leaving taxpayers to fork over significantly more money than they will in subsequent years.
Mike Merlino, chief operating officer for the district, reiterated that at the school board meeting.
“It’s still responsible from the perspective of the dollars that we’re asking of the taxpayers,” Merlino said.
Merlino also noted that this is the first time the district has run a technology levy. While other districts in Clark County and around the state have done so, the district has covered technology costs out of its maintenance and operations levy. However, it cannot cover the costs with this new enrichment levy or the general purpose money given to the district by the state, which next year is projected to be about $237.7 million.
“We don’t have the ability to collect those extra dollars,” Merlino said.
Levies require a simple majority to pass. The enrichment levy must pass for the technology levy to go into effect, even if the latter passes on its own.
