A proposed piece of legislation that was presented to a committee of the state senate on Thursday for consideration would lower the approval threshold that is required to pass school bond measures and fund construction projects.
According to the Constitution of the State of Washington, in order for capital bond proposals to be approved, they need to receive approval from at least sixty percent of voters.
In the event that Senate Bill 5186 and Senate Joint Resolution 8200 are approved, the constitution would be amended in order to reduce the threshold for school districts to 55%.
It is an impossible target for many of our districts at this time, according to State Senator Deb Krishnadasan (Democrat of Gig Harbor), who stated that the sixty percent is the current percentage.
Krishnadasan and Adrian Cortes, a Democratic state senator from Battle Ground, are the individuals who are moving the effort forward.
“We’re investing in our future, we’re investing in our kids,” Krishnadasan stated. “Our school districts are failing in terms of providing high quality buildings to help our kids compete in the global economy.”
The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction provided testimony in favor of the measures on Thursday during a hearing held by the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee.
In their testimony, they stated that just four of the fourteen bond measures that were proposed in November of this year were ultimately approved.
According to the staff of the OSPI, if the approval criterion had been set at 55%, that number would have increased to nine.
According to OSPI’s Mikhail Cherniske, “five more of those bonds would have passed, that would have been $1 billion more in funding for these school facilities.” Senators were informed by school administrators from all throughout the state that they have had difficulty upgrading their facilities to accommodate the increasing number of students. They claimed that because the proposed bonds only missed the 60% supermajority, they would have to pay extra to reissue the bonds in subsequent elections.
Kyle Rydell, the superintendent of the West Valley School District, testified, “We have over hundreds of buildings throughout the state that are over a hundred years old. We all know, there’s new codes, there’s new requirements, we fall into categories where schools are just not as efficient as they should be.”
“Our community has tried twice in the past two years to pass bonds for our field, but both attempts failed,” Eatonville School District student Bailey Andersen stated. “Without that support, we lack the facilities that many other schools take for granted. When our football team made it to the state playoffs, we couldn’t host the games at home because our fields weren’t good enough.”
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Similar to levies, several school administrators stated that they would want a simple majority to adopt bonds; however, Krishnadasan stated that this could make it more difficult to have the amendment enacted.
Senators were informed by those opposed to reducing the barrier that they are worried about the accountability of school expenditure and rising property taxes.
Krishnadasan admitted that bonds might affect property taxes, but that since they are paid over a 20–30 year period, their effect would be less than that of a levy.
“By not lowering this 60% threshold, it’s forcing school districts to run 50% capital levies,” the senator stated. “And those levies are collected over a four or five year period, and the tax implications to taxpayers are incredibly higher than if you were to run a 55% bond.”
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Senate Joint Resolution would require a two-thirds majority vote from both the house and the senate to forward the constitutional amendment to voters, and Senate Bill 5186 would need to pass the legislature before the threshold could be lowered.
At the following general election, that amendment would then need to be approved by a simple majority.
