It's a levy or bond payments for Sunnyside voters

SUNNYSIDE, Wash. -- Voters in the Sunnyside School District have two options: Approve a four-year, $2,040,653 maintenance and operations levy or have property owners take over payments on bonds that the district is currently paying.

School officials say the levy is needed to fund a slew of student programs, school supplies, building maintenance and some teachers' salaries in the roughly 6,200-student district.

Bond measures previously approved by voters are expected to expire in 2022. The measures, which total $22.7 million, helped modernize and expand the high school.

School officials promised that those bonds would be folded into the school district's $61.7 million annual budget, so long as voters kept in place a maintenance and operations levy, said district spokesman Curtis Campbell.

Now, school officials are asking voters during a special Feb. 14 election to approve a levy that would replace one due to expire in December. In 2012, property owners will pay $1.22 per $1,000 of assessed property value for the expiring levy.

The proposed levy would cost property owners an estimated $1.58 per $1,000 of assessed value the first year, and decrease each year before bottoming out in 2016 at $1.45 per $1,000 of assessed value. The owner of a $100,000 home, for example, would pay $158 the first year, with the sum declining each year to $145 the final year.

Tax rates are set in January of each year.

The decreases in the annual tax rate of the proposed levy are based on projected changes in property values, Campbell said.

If voters approve the measure, the district would also get up to $7.2 million in state matching funds.

"That money gets spread out over a lot of different areas," he said.

But if voters reject the measure, then property owners would have to repay the bonds that the district is currently paying, he said.

Those bonds would cost property owners an estimated $1.91 per $1,000 of assessed property value for the next 10 years, he said.

Without a levy, the school district would have to shift money being used to repay the bonds to pay for school operations, he said.

The levy pays for after-school programs, a school police officer, gang and substance abuse prevention programs, some teachers' salaries, computer upgrades and building maintenance.

School officials want to put more iPads into the hands of elementary students, rather than walking them to a computer lab daily, Campbell said.

The iPads, now present in two schools in the district, are cheaper than computers and can be linked to the district's learning program.

"We'd like to spread them out to the other schools," he said.

But levy dollars are needed to do that, he added.

Without a levy and matching state funds, the district would have to dip deeper into its general fund and shift bond payments to property owners, he said.

Also, after-school programs, music, art and drama classes, and other programs would vanish without a levy, he said.

"After-school programs are important. Fine arts, music -- it's hard to say any one of these things is more important than the other," he said. "I would say they are all critical to give the best education opportunity."

Sunnyside schools' proposed M&O levy

                     2013            2014          2015            2016

Levy amount $2,040,653 $2,040,653 $2,040,653 $2,040,653

Proposed rate* $1.58       $1.53        $1.49             $1.45

* Rate per $1,000 of assessed property value.

Source: Sunnyside School District

* Phil Ferolito can be reached at 509-577-7749 or pferolito@yakimaherald.com.