Ballots in mail this week for school levy vote

The 3,691 voters in the La Conner School District are being asked again to approve a school levy — this time to raise $2.5 million over two years starting in 2018.

At the same time, the state Legislature, which is under court-order to fully fund basic education, is working to find a fix this year to Washington school districts’ dependency on local levies.

The Skagit County Auditor’s Office Election Department is mailing special levy election ballots today, Wednesday. Voters will also receive a flier from La Conner Schools with voter information.

School Business Manager Bonnie Haley said the district is required to provide levy information, but unlike last year’s glossy magazine format, the district is sending out a simple tri-fold flier. Budget cuts put an end to the school district’s slick “Lantern” publication.

The district’s proposed levy would account for about $2.50 per $1,000 of a property’s assessed value. However, taxpayers are also paying for a building bond passed in 2013; therefore, the district estimates that the total school portion of a property tax bill would be about $5.44 per $1,000 in value.

If approved, that tax rate would be in effect in 2018 and 2019. The 2017 tax rate is lower — about $4.98 per $1,000 because voters approved a scaled-back one-year levy last April after the district’s more ambitious pair of levies totaling about $1.5 million failed in February.

The levy failure was a first in La Conner history.

While there has been no sign of a local tax revolt this year, some of the elements that caused last February’s levy to fail are still in play.

For example, taxpayers in the district make up a minority of voters because more than half the registered voters live on land that the district cannot tax. That means most voters will be deciding whether to raise other people’s taxes, not their own.

The disparity was caused when Skagit County removed 931 parcels from the district’s tax rolls, inspired in part by a directive from the Washington Department of Revenue that declared all buildings on leased tribal land immune from state and local taxes. The state’s “Property Tax Advisory” for county assessors came after the federal appellate court’s so-called “Great Wolf Lodge” decision.

Assessors in Skagit and Snohomish counties were unaware that tribal lawyers played a significant role in crafting the state’s directive, which hit La Conner hard. Most of the gated Shelter Bay community and homes in the Pull & Be Damned Road neighborhood were developed on leased federal land held in trust for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. Though the homes themselves are privately owned and were taxed, the land they’re built on is leased from the tribe and was never taxed.

When the properties came off the county tax rolls, the burden was shifted to the remaining taxpayers, some of whom had to pay thousands of dollars more.

Meanwhile, the tribe began taxing the non-tribal members who own homes on the reservation land it leases. For the last three years, the tribe has contributed a portion of the money it collects to the school district and other taxing entities. For the school district, the contribution makes up a little more than half what the district would have collected in taxes from the parcels removed from the tax rolls.Not only do most of the school district’s voters live on land that cannot be taxed, about two-thirds of the district’s enrollment comes from reservation land, including children who are tribal members and children who live in Shelter Bay.

Although some of the factors that drove the tax revolt and levy failure last year have not changed, the school district has worked hard to keep residents in the loop. The levy proposed this year would tax property owners at a lower rate than the $5.66 per $1,000 they were taxed before the 931 parcels came off the tax rolls in 2015.

Last year the district sponsored a series of detailed public budget workshops and let the community help decide on places to trim costs.

The board members, Haley and Superintendent Peg Seeling are making sure people have enough information to make a decision on the levy vote, personally answering every question for anyone who asks.

The district has also been holding public meetings for anyone who wants more information on the levy proposal. The next one is 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 1, at the district office.