Smaller bond, still big value
Published 2:23 pm Monday, April 12, 2010
It doesn’t make sense at first, but it’s true.
If Marysville School District voters approve the bond measure on the April 27 ballot, “total school taxes for 2011 will be less than 2010.” Huh? How can you vote to fund new school construction and other capital projects and not see your taxes rise as a result?
The reason is that bonds approved 20 years ago are being retired. The current $32 million proposition, reduced from the $78 million measure that fell short of the 60 percent approval bar in February, carries lower payments than the 1990 bonds that built Allen Creek and Quil Ceda elementary schools and Cedarcrest Middle School. That means a lower tax bill.
District leaders made the right decision to resubmit a smaller measure to voters, and we strongly urge its approval. The need to replace and modernize infrastructure is clear, and delay only drives up the eventual costs. It’s wise to make some headway now, while construction bids are coming in low.
In February, 57 percent of Marysville voters gave a thumbs-up to a four-year operations levy, and 53 percent said yes to the larger bond measure. Their message wasn’t hard to interpret: Support for schools is strong, but with family budgets tight, the district was asking for too much.
So its leaders, working with advice from citizen volunteers, removed two big projects: replacements for aging Liberty Elementary School and Marysville Middle School.
The reduced proposal would replace worn-out Cascade Elementary with a two-story building based on the plans used for Grove Elementary (no need to pay for a new design), pay for needed technology upgrades and health and safety improvements throughout the district, and repairs to the swimming pool at Marysville-Pilchuck High School (a popular community resource). It would also allow for future savings by paying now to plan other projects.
Taxpayers would pay an estimated 20 cents per $1,000 of property value for the new measure — an average of $60 on a $300,000 home. And with the retirement of the 1990 bonds, the total tax bill for Marysville schools will go down.
Yes, if the measure fails, the tax bill will fall a little more. But the long-term bill for keeping students in adequate buildings with modern learning tools will only grow larger if these projects are put off. Making this reasonable community investment now is the thriftier move.
And your vote matters. The last bond measure approved in Marysville passed by just a handful of votes. Don’t let your ballot sit on the kitchen table — fill it out and mail it in today.
