Both Seattle levies appear headed for passage

By Sanjay Bhatt
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Voters appeared to be sending Seattle Public Schools a message today: Thumbs up.

With an estimated 60 percent of the absentee ballots counted in today's special election, early returns showed both Seattle's school operations and capital levies headed for passage.

After more than a year of turmoil, the state's largest district may finally be able to focus on education. Schools First! campaign manager Ann Goos said, "We're optimistic. Those are very nice numbers."

King County's elections office had forecast a 32 percent turnout, with about two-thirds of the voters casting absentee ballots, based on school levy elections in 2001 and 1998, said Elections Superintendent Bill Huennekens.

At Schools First! campaign headquarters in the South Lake Union district, volunteers cheered and exchanged hugs and looks of relief. The campaign's get-out-the-vote drive built to a crescendo yesterday, with more than 1,000 volunteers waving signs at 72 intersections and phoning reminders to registered voters' homes.

The crucial three-year, $338 million operations levy provides 23 percent of the district's annual operating budget and renews a previously approved tax measure.

The six-year, $178 million capital levy — also a renewal levy — is intended pay for nearly 700 projects, including new roofs, plumbing repairs and central-office computer systems, which were recommended by the consultants who investigated last year's budget errors.

 "If you fail the operating levy, the consequences are catastrophic and instantaneous," said John Vacchiery, the district's facilities director. "If you continue to fail capital levies, you have the same result, of buildings deteriorating, only it takes longer."

In the days leading up to yesterday's election, no one could say with certainty that both levies would pass, given the pratfalls of the district over the past year.

Last week, blistering criticism of a School Board proposal to weigh in on the local Darigold labor dispute led vice president Brita Butler-Wall to withdraw her motion.

Last month, the board drew strong public reaction after passing a resolution to oppose charter-school legislation in Olympia. And some voters may have had lingering concerns about past mistakes that plunged the district into financial crisis and unhinged its leadership last year.

Poor oversight and sloppy budget management resulted in excessive spending and overly rosy revenue estimates in 2001-02 and 2002-03 that ultimately created a cumulative $36 million deficit.

Chief Financial Officer Geri Lim resigned in August 2002, and then-Superintendent Joseph Olchefske announced his resignation the following April. Bringing spending in line with revenue meant drastic moves. The district liquidated assets and borrowed money.

The School Board tapped $8.9 million of reserves, $4.1 million of interest from its capital fund and $10 million from an energy-retrofit capital fund. To rebuild its reserves and repay the money it borrowed, the district is selling closed schools and office buildings.

In May, the district announced its first mass teacher layoffs since the mid-1980s. But by the start of the school year in September, the district was able to offer jobs to all but three of the 178 laid-off school staff, although the disruption to some schools was irreversible.

Clerical, custodial and other classified positions were eliminated and vacancies left unfilled. Going into 2003-04, the district had shed nearly 193 full-time equivalent positions in a year.

By October, a four-month effort to pick Olchefske's successor ended with all four finalists withdrawing and the board giving then-Interim Superintendent Raj Manhas a one-year contract.

The next month, voters ousted the three incumbents running for reelection and created a new board majority. Mary Bass, who had been on the losing end of many 6-1 votes over the past two years, became board president.

According to the district, the tax rate for the local school levies will decrease from $2.39 per $1,000 of assessed value in 2003 to $2.12 per $1,000 in 2007, assuming property values increase at 6 percent a year.

If property values grow by more than 6 percent a year, as they have in the past five years, the rate will be lower but the average tax bill would be the same.

Owners of a $336,000 home — the average residence value in Seattle last year — would see their total schools-tax bill rise from about $830 this year to $865 in 2005, $880 in 2006 and $899 in 2007.

These figures factor in the assumed 6 percent annual increase in property values and include a previously approved new-school construction levy. The actual average total schools-tax bill homeowners pay each year probably will be lower if past trends continue, district officials say.

The total levy revenue listed on the measures establish a ceiling for how much the district can collect from homeowners. The total local levy revenue - which determines the average schools-tax bill - is based on a projected total "levy base," which is the amount the district gets from state revenue and some federal sources.

 If revenue from state and federal sources declines, so does the levy base and thus the local levy revenue the district can collect. Thus in 2004 the district can collect only $105 million in local levy even though voters in 2001 authorized it to collect up to $123 million. State law limits Seattle's school levies to 32 percent of the levy base.

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