Battle Ground School District – November 2021 Levy: Fact Check

Well it seems that the social media services have been forcing a “fact check” on topics they deem worthy of attention. So, we thought we would take the same approach to the Battle Ground Levy. We’ll link to the levy brochure the district created. Then we’ll work our way through their claims and share our “fact checker” results. Most things are not black and white so we’ll also explore the shades of gray.

Here’s a link to the brochure: https://www.battlegroundps.org/levy/

Before we get into the details please remember one thing. The last levy used a completely different system vs. the current levy. The old rate in the last levy was around $3.66/$1000. When the state raised property taxes for schools Clark County went up almost $1/$1000 of assessed value. That led to the reduction in the levy cap to $1.50 because it was to be a “levy swap”, that is, the local went down by an equal amount to the state funding that increased. Except…the money went to the teachers so the legislature raised the cap to $2.50 (the school boards complained about upcoming deficits and rather than telling the boards to live with their actions the legislature raised the cap). If you take the new proposed levy $$$ and add in the money from the State what you will find is that taxes have gone UP…UP…UP…in terms of dollars (no matter what the “rate” is). In the past 8 years the total dollars spent per student in WA State has doubled. An estimated 52-54% if the entire WA State budget goes to schools. So while this new “rate” appears to be a slight decline the actual amount of $$$ going to schools continues to rise over time. Please keep that in mind.  Note: If you want to read some of the articles we’ve published on school taxes click this link: http://www.swweducation.org/?cat=64   

Let’s walk through the statements on this page:

• Not a new tax: Technically true. It is a “replacement levy” which means it is a new 4 year levy. It is MORE money and it is a different tax rate but it is in the same general operating levy. Under the post McCleary world the old levy was called a “Maintenance and Operations Levy (M&O) but is now called an “Enrichment Levy (EL)”. The rules about use of the the EL are broader than they used to be which would actually make it a new levy…but why quibble?
• Lower tax rate: True. In the August 2019/20 the school board increased the levy rate from $1.50 to $2.50 by increasing the levy amount…without telling the public until AFTER it was done. They didn’t feel compelled to tell people their tax rate was increasing by $1/$1000 of assessed value. Then in the 2020/21 budget they scaled the levy back and it ended up around $2.32/$1000 so they said it declined by $.18/$1000. Then, when the February 2021 levy failed they cut the levy back to a new target of $1.99/$1000….but wait….the rate (called a millage rate) is an estimate based on the levy amount for any given year and the property values. As property values increase the “rate” goes down. The money raised is the key…we’ll look at the numbers later. PLEASE note that the proposed $1.99 is still $.40/$1000 HIGHER than the $1.50/$1000 in January 2019. [The issue is that school boards across the state gave away massive pay increases to teachers and in so doing they cried to the legislature they were going to run out of money so the legislature raised the levy cap from $1.50 to $2.50 IF their previous levy rate was at or above $2.50]
• Taxes collected:  We went back to see what the projected numbers were for the February 2017 levy election (the one that’s expiring). Here’s our article from that time: http://www.swweducation.org/?p=3688   Here’s an article on the errors the district made in the levy claims at that time and the changes they had to make (but never had to tell the public about): http://www.swweducation.org/?p=3652   Here’s the 2017 version of Check the Facts for the proposed levy: http://www.swweducation.org/?p=3631   One final article from January 2017: http://www.swweducation.org/?p=3575   It appears the Board is asking for a total of $115,700,000 in levy taxes over the four (4) years. The 2017 projection for the years 2018-2021 were $136.4mm. On that basis it appears they are asking for $20.7mm LESS. Why? (1) they are drawing down their reserves so the rainy day cushion is going to decline; (2) they have suffered a loss in the number of students. Last year they lost north of 1200 students which cost the district over ~$12mm in lost revenue from the state. Please note that the current state school property tax is based on assessed value so your taxes keep going up. The plan is for the state school property tax to move to a fixed annual amount starting in 2023…if that happens.

Brochure (page 2):

• The levy failed in Feb 2021. The Board came back and reduced the proposed levy size. So the pushback from the public was effective
• Why have levies when McCleary said the state would cover all the expenses?
  • Every school district sees the world differently. BG admin and the board support a model that has more teachers, nurses, psychologists, counselors and other support personnel than the state pays for. Indeed, as a percent of staff BG has the HIGHEST percentage of extra support staff of any district in Southwest Washington. Those higher costs are paid out of the local levy. Other districts use fewer extra people as a percent of their total workforce. The only solution would be for the State to tell districts how many people they get by position (which is what they do now but many districts say isn’t enough) and not allow any local increases. If local taxpayers want to pay for extra personnel so be it.
• Unfunded mandates are an issue. The Feds and State will tell districts they need to provide certain services but don’t always provide the funding. The only alternative is for the school board to say no…but that almost never happens so the burden is put on the taxpayers…through levy’s.
• Covid impact: Some costs did increase. The district accelerated the purchases of technology. They paid for thousands of wireless accounts for rural students. They did save some money but the biggest cost is teachers and the union contract says teachers can only be laid off (reduction in force – RIF) by notice to the union in May of each year. (Personnel costs consume about 80% of the total budget) So, everyone was paid. But wait….districts have been given 1x funds (ESSER) to help defer those costs. Specifically, Battle Ground is getting $19.3 million (here’s a link to an article about all districts in SWW: http://www.swweducation.org/?p=7223
• What if the levy doesn’t pass? Larger class sizes? Maybe. But with falling student headcount that may or may not be true. The current class sizes show at about 18-19 students per room. Loss of the arts? They already cut back several years ago so not sure how this would change. Limited tech? They are already at essentially 1:1 on computers. How much more tech is needed? Where’s the evidence of value of the new tech? Sports fees higher? Could be. Reduction in Social Emotional support? Please take some time to review our 24 articles on S.E.L. before you think this is a bad idea:  http://www.swweducation.org/?cat=813 
• Deferred building maintenance?  Anything is possible. Based on the reports from the head of maintenance for the district all large projects are done or in good shape. We rate this one more of a fear factor than truth. In the past when faced with budget issues maintenance was the place to cut expenses.
• The double levy failure in the 80’s was devastating. Ok. That would now be nearly 40 years ago? Is that still valid? Heck, the district leadership gets upset about people talking about the Shoney Brea fiasco 7 years ago (where the school board wrote a check for $400,000 and lied to the public) as being needless baggage but they want to raise 40 years ago to make their point? Really?
• Lowest school tax rate in Clark County. This one is true with shades of gray. If we use just the levy at $2.32 currently we see Battle Ground is the 3rd highest levy rate in SWW…not the lowest. Then they add the bond rate. The current BG bond runs out in 2023 so that’s why it’s so low. Most other districts have gotten voter approval for massive bonds in recent years ranging up to $1 billion. It’s well known that there was an effort to get a new bond passed several years ago. Here are links to a couple of articles we’ve shared about bonds that may be useful in understanding what goes on: http://www.swweducation.org/?p=6909    OR  http://www.swweducation.org/?p=6345   AND  http://www.swweducation.org/?p=4869   Glenwood and Laurin need to be replaced…not a question. Some want Pleasant Valley to be completely replaced while others think it will do just fine with some upgrades and remodeling. There are projects at some other schools that could be done as well. What does it cost today to build a new school? Current estimates are a sq/ft cost of more than $500. Depending on the number of students on a campus (say target 500-700?) The state requires prevailing wages to be paid (which adds about 40% to the cost). The Bethel School district is going through a major capital program. They are targeting 80,000 sq/ft for an elementary school. Middle and High Schools are larger and need more space per student. A high school might need 125,000 sq/ft with middle schools falling in between at ~100,000 sq/ft. So using $500 x 80,000 sq/ft = $40mm. A middle school $50mm. (This assumes no value for the land)
  • In 2023 expect the school board to come asking for a capital bond for replacement and updates. How much will they ask for? Could easily be $150 to $400 million. That would raise taxes.
    • We realize that’s a couple of years down the road but it to bears keeping in mind.

That’s about it for now. You vote. You decide. Ask questions. Voter turnout will be the key. If you don’t vote don’t complain.

Many issues aren’t black or white. Every one of us has our own beliefs and bias’. Vote…what you think makes sense but please vote.

Are we against taxes? No.

Are we against local levy’s? No…actually we think that the state should put in an amount and leave control and additional fund raising to each district. The way the system is going the State will take all 295 districts and make it into 1 big district. If you can’t make decisions based on what your constituents want why have a school district?

Should we vote for a levy? If you think the value exceeds the costs then yes

Adults make decisions that affect the students. Poor decisions have consequences…but…some people say you can’t hold the adults accountable because it would hurt the children. That’s a circular argument. The buck needs to stop someplace.