School levy needed just to maintain status quo

Published 2:27 pm Thursday, January 22, 2009

The key thing to understand about the South Kitsap School District’s Feb. 3 replacement levy is that it will only be used to pay for routine operating expenses over and above what the state already pays for — or doesn’t pay for.

Unlike, for example, the unsuccessful school bond a couple of years ago that would have built a whole new high school South Kitsap may or may not have needed, next month’s levy doesn’t really build or buy anything new — other than 2,180 computers needed to replace machines that no longer meet state code.

And that particular expenditure only amounts to 5 percent of the total the district is asking for.

The rest goes for such items as building maintenance, textbooks, teachers and supplies.

Is the budget as austere as it could be? Maybe not.

Any individual could probably go through it line by line and pick out something that isn’t important to them and argue it should be cut.

But overall, the district’s requests seem about as reasonable as consensus will allow.

In these difficult economic times, when everyone is struggling to account for every penny, the voters are entitled to know their hard-earned tax dollars are being spent wisely, and it’s hard to fault those who have questions or reservations when it comes to any property tax increase.

Still, in this case it’s clear that whatever the district would have to cut if the levy fails is something it’s providing now — something important to just about everyone, such as bus service, extracurricular activities or teaching positions needed to keep class sizes manageable — rather than something new and unnecessary.

Given the current economic climate, we couldn’t support a ballot measure that asks for more, and this doesn’t appear to be such a request.

But knowing how critical quality schools are to the community, we have no problem supporting the coming school levy because we don’t expect the district to make do with any less.