PORT TOWNSEND — A four-year maintenance and operation levy for the Port Townsend School District will be on the Feb. 6 special election ballot.
The five-member Port Townsend School Board voted unanimously this week to include the levy on the ballot.
Port Townsend School District Superintendent Tom Opstad said the levy revenue would go toward routine maintenance and operations of the facilities as well as help to fund some school programs and extracurricular activities.
“We depend on the levy for 20 percent of our operating budget,” said Opstad.
The levy requires a 60 percent supermajority, meaning that 60 percent of those who vote must approve the measure for it to pass.
For the election to be validated, 40 percent of Port Townsend School District voters from November’s general election must cast ballots, which amounts to 3,272 votes of the 8,178 who voted in that election.
The Port Townsend School District has 10,207 registered voters.
The levy, if approved, would begin to be collected in 2008.
The total amount would be $2.68 million in 2008.
That’s a 16.3 percent increase from the current $2.3 million levy that expires at the end of 2007.
The amount would go up by 3.3 percent each year, but the rates would be expected to go down.
That’s because of Initiative 747, which permits only a 1 percent maximum increase in property taxes each year. New construction can affect the final amount of the levy rate each year, so expected levy rates are estimated.
The expiring three-year levy, which was approved by voters in 2004 with 67.29 percent in favor, remained constant at $2.3 million during each of the three years it was in effect.
