PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles School Board will consider tonight if a replacement maintenance and operations levy should be placed on the February 2011 ballot.
The school board will meet at 7 p.m. at the Central Services Building, 216 E. Fourth St.
If approved, the measure would be placed on the Feb. 8, 2011, ballot, seeking a four-year levy that would ask for $8,178,067 in 2012, increasing a little bit each subsequent year.
It would replace a four-year levy that will expire in December 2011 and that allows $7,439,312 to be collected in 2011, Superintendent Jane Pryne said.
To compare the two, the current levy in 2011 works out to a rate of about $2.41 per $1,000 assessed valuation. That means the owner of a $200,000 home will pay about $482 in 2011.
If the replacement levy is approved, the district estimates the rate would be about $2.64 per $1,000 assessed valuation in 2012. That means the owner of a $200,000 home would pay $528 in property taxes.
Over four years, the replacement levy would collect about $33.5 million.
The amount collected can be affected, for example, if property values rise or new construction creates a larger tax base.
“We expect that most of the difference in the levy amount will be made up by increases in property values,” Pryne said.
“We really don’t think that people will see much of a difference.”
Once approved, the rate is expected to stay about the same, but the amount collected would increase, she said.
When a school maintenance and operations levy is voted on, it is the total amount, not the rate, that is approved.
Cuts by the Legislature to deal with the state’s budget problems coupled with declining enrollment in the district, which affects allocations, led to nearly $2 million in cuts from the draft budget that the district was working with. The final budget was approved in August.
“On top of everything, we are also concerned because Gov. [Chris] Gregoire has said that she is considering cutting 10 percent — including schools,” Pryne said.
“All we are trying to do with this levy is maintain what we have right now.”
The levy makes up about a 19 percent of the district’s $38 million budget in 2011.
The Legislature approved allowing school districts to increase levy support from 24 percent of their budgets to 28 percent.
However, at 19 percent of the budget, Pryne noted “we won’t be anywhere close to that.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
