Voters reject school levies

A pair of replacement school levies in La Conner appeared headed for failure on Tuesday when preliminary election results were released.

La Conner School district proposed a maintenance and operations levy and a technology levy to replace two levies that expire this year. Had they passed, they would have provided a total of nearly $1.5 million per year in school funding for 2017 and 2018.

According to early vote counts released by the Skagit County Auditor’s office, the maintenance and operations levy was failing 58.5 “No” to 41.5 percent “Yes.” The technology levy fared slightly worse, with 59.42 percent “No” and 40.58 percent “Yes.”

Results will be official when the election is certified on Feb. 19.

A school funding vote hasn’t failed in La Conner for generations. The levies expiring this year passed in a landslide with more than 70 percent “Yes” in 2012.

But this time there was a federal court’s so called Great Wolf Lodge decision that took nearly all of Shelter Bay and other homes on leased Swinomish Reservation land off the school tax rolls.

The Great Wolf decision shifted the tax burden to the remaining taxpayers, creating a debacle.

More than 52 percent of the registered voters live on land the school district cannot tax. Also, about two-thirds of the district’s students – including children who are Swinomish tribal members as well as children who live in Shelter Bay – live on reservation land the district cannot tax.

Many of the voters on tribal land apparently voted not to tax their neighbors.

On Tuesday, 1,323 ballots had been counted and more will be counted in coming days. In the 2013 school bond election 1,647 ballots were cast.

La Conner is the only district in Skagit County with failing levies. In Burlington, Concrete and Mount Vernon the school levies were passing in the early vote tallies.