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The first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol and Seattle city hall, PubliCola has been called a “must-read” by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a hot “New Media Mover and Shaker” by Seattle Magazine—which also cited our own Erica C. Barnett as the city's No. 1 news nerd.

School Levies Passing Handily

Politics   February 9, 2010 at 9:27 pm Josh Feit

The school programming and building levies are killing.

71 to 28 percent on both.


  • jabailo

    Good to see that people are more than willing to fund specific measures dedicated to education. Should make it harder for Gregoire to argue “schools” when all she wants to do is pad the general fund.

  • erickoszyk

    Oh brother, Jabailo, give it a rest. The two propositions passed tonight were just extensions of tax measures passed years ago. They pay for the basic operations of the schools, nothing else. The schools in this state still don't have enough money.

    What would you cut from the budget? Would you cut money for senior services, money for cops, or the paltry $330 a month people get for General Assistance Unemployable?

    There are two choices — raise taxes or cut services to the poor, elderly and needy. That's it.

    Thank God that the Democrats in the Senate are finally putting the people of this state first. I only hope the House follows their lead.

  • jabailo

    Typical Demoalarmism. Clearly people want to fund the important things directly, at a local level. The only ones being cut are out of touch leaders at the very top…those are the obstructionists.

  • Michael M.

    Perhaps you have even less of an understanding of exactly how budgets for schools work.

    As previously stated, the two Seattle Schools levies are purely extensions of previous levies. One, the operations levy, funds approximately 23% of the cost of education in the Seattle SD. The other, the capital levy, goes towards capital projects, renovations at schools that are major, and, if memory serves, a technology upgrade for the District offices.

    These are required because our state budget, and revenue source, is so fucked up that it cannot even do one of it's primary objectives – fund education. Instead, school districts have to rely on the whim of voters for fully funded education. Luckily, in Seattle, that's not that difficult. However, a bond measure to build three new schools in Marysville, for instance, is failing, which means there are going to be kids in schools that are overcrowded, and potentially unsafe to the north.

    Education in this state is still underfunded, and we need to have more money from the State to address that. Judge Ehrlick (I believe?) recently stated the same when ruling on a lawsuit a week or so ago, and I do hope that this forces the hand of Olympia to stop looking for stopgap measures, and come back next year prepared to fully overhaul our revenue and, to a lesser extend, expenditure structures.

  • april

    what about the Walla Walla transit levy passing with 76% of the vote? huge news!

    http://whitmanpioneer.com/breaking-news/2010/02…

  • Michael M.

    Nobody cares about Walla Walla ;-)