YAKIMA, Wash. -- The gap between the haves and have-nots would grow if state levy equalization funds are suspended during the upcoming legislative session, according to a group of local school district superintendents.

"It's not quite equal now," said Sunnyside superintendent Rick Cole. "But if levy equalization goes away, it's really going to get wide."

Cole was among the dozen school officials that met at the Yakima Herald-Republic on Tuesday morning to discuss education funding in the face of a $2.6 billion state budget shortfall.

The 2010 state legislative begins Monday.

School districts in Central Washington stand to lose more than $44 million in the 2010-2011 academic year if state levy equalization funds are completely suspended, according to estimates from Educational Service District 105.

The Yakima School District -- the largest in the Yakima Valley with more than 14,500 students -- stands to lose the most: More than $12 million.

"That's 165 people," said superintendent Elaine Beraza, assessing how many jobs could be lost with the figure.

Coupled with other proposed cuts, the district could be looking at a total reduction of $19.3 million.

"Where would you cut that kind of money?" Beraza said. "It's almost overwhelming."

When Gov. Chris Gregoire released her preliminary $31 billion state budget last month, the proposal included suspending levy equalization funds as well as a host of other cuts to K-12 and higher education. She's expected to release a second budget this month that restores some education funding as well as raises taxes.

"I will find a way to restore levy equalization funds for our schools," she pledged in early December.

But that doesn't mean educators aren't worried.

"We need to keep levy equalization funds guaranteed in the law," said Neal Kirby, an elementary school principal in Centralia who's considered an expert on levy equal-ization. He also attended Tuesday's forum.

"Levy equal-ization is a boon to help (law-makers) bring tax dollars back to their own com-munities," he said. "This helps farmers. This helps business-men. This helps home-owners."

Property
-rich districts are able to run levies at lower tax rates yet rake in more money than land-poor districts. State levy equalization funds are intended to provide equity between property-rich and land-poor school districts.

Of the 295 school districts statewide, 220 rely on the funding, which pays for day-to-day expenses, from staffing and supplies to textbooks and transportation. Every Yakima County school district benefits from that money.

"If we lose levy equalization, we are doing the opposite of what we are supposed to do as a state," said Yakima state Sen. Curtis King, the ranking Republican on the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee. He also attended Tuesday's meeting at the Herald-Republic.

"We're going to have to make cuts," King said. But, those cuts must be made "so we have the least impact on the most vulnerable districts that we have."

State law caps the amount that can be raised from levies at 24 percent of the district's state and federal revenues. Some districts were grandfathered in when the Levy Lid Act was passed in 1978 and have higher caps -- up to 33.9 percent. And Gregoire has proposed lifting the lid to 36 percent for the rest of the districts. But most districts don't collect the full amount they're allowed now.

"It doesn't cost the state anything to allow that levy lid to creep up," West Valley superintendent Peter Ansingh said, adding that only a small amount of districts statewide -- about 20 percent -- would benefit from lifting the lid.

Levies need a simple majority to pass. And in Sunnyside -- as well as other local communities -- "We can't raise the levy to 24 percent and get it passed by voters," Cole said.

His district receives about $5.9 million in levy equalization money, or nearly 10 percent of its $62.8 million budget.

"We don't know what's going to happen if levy equalization is gone," Cole said. "We do know a lot of people and programs will be cut. If you take 10 percent of 880 people to make up the difference, you're talking 80 to 100 jobs. We won't have anything left."

Suspending levy equalization would force higher class sizes and eliminate teaching positions throughout Central Washington, a region where many students qualify for free and reduced lunch programs.

Said Ansingh, "This targets the neediest kids."

* Adriana Janovich can be reached at 509-577-7653 or ajanovich@yakimaherald.com.