Ballots for April 27 election start arriving today
Published 10:27 pm Thursday, April 8, 2010
People should start receiving ballots today for an April 27 election that will decide tax measures for emergency services in Everett as well school propositions in Marysville, Monroe and Index.
The county elections office is sending out about 100,000 ballots, including more than 45,000 to Everett voters.
Despite an all-mail election format, county officials don’t expect to get half the ballots back.
“We are guessing around a 35 percent turnout,” said Garth Fell, the Snohomish County elections manager. “It’s a little difficult to tell. Our turnout projections are merely based on historical data.”
This will be the last special election of the spring. The next election will be the August primary.
The city of Everett is asking voters to consider lifting the lid on an emergency medical services levy.
The tax measure would bump the levy rate from 31 cents to 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. The owner of a $300,000 home would pay $150 a year — $57 more than now. The levy, which requires a simple majority to pass, would not have a set date when it would expire.
In 2000, Everett voters approved a perpetual EMS levy that allowed officials to increase property taxes by as much as 6 percent a year. An initiative later limited tax increases to no more than 1 percent a year.
As the cost of running the program has soared, the 1 percent annual tax boost hasn’t kept pace with the cost of providing services, officials said. This year, the city had to borrow $2 million from its operating budget to pay for the program.
Voters in the Marysville School District again will be asked to pass a bond for school construction.
The $32 million proposition is less than half the amount asked for in a $78 million bond measure voters rejected in February. That package received a 53 percent “yes” vote, but it needed 60 percent.
By state law, school districts are allowed two chances a year to pass bond measures, which typically pay for school construction and require 60 percent approval. Levies, by contrast, pay for schools’ daily operations and require a simple majority.
The new proposal would replace the aging Cascade Elementary School, provide health and safety improvements, technology upgrades and work on the swimming pool at Marysville-Pilchuck High School.
Monroe voters will decide three propositions: a replacement technology and capital projects levy, a transportation levy to replace aging school buses and a $47.4 million bond to upgrade Park Place Middle School and add classrooms for technology and science at Hidden River Middle School. It also would provide additional space at Frank Wagner Elementary School for technology classes and for children with special needs as well as PE and athletic programs at Monroe High School.
Voters in the tiny Index School District will decide whether to replace a four-year maintenance and operation levy that would provide $210,615 annually.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@hearldnet.com.
Election coverage
The April 27 special election ballot includes tax measures in Everett, Marysville, Monroe and Index.
Here’s a schedule of scheduled stories on each measure:
Sunday — Marysville School District bond measure
Monday — Index maintenance and operation levy
Tuesday — Monroe School District levy and bond propositions
Wednesday — City of Everett emergency services levy lid lift
