The $55,000,000 Lake Pend Oreille School District proposed levy will on average, cost taxpayers double the $200 per $200,000 estimate reported in the Bee’s Aug. 6 article.

It is actually based on adding $2 per $1,000 of assessed value, or $400 per $200,000. There must be some number massaging going on for the quoted amount. It probably uses tax tiers to make it seem more palatable.

“What makes this dollar amount the minimum needed?” The LPSOD Final Facilities Report 1-13-16 is online. I read it this morning. The most interesting part was in Section 7.2: The Financial Plan. The funding for those projects could come from a six-year plant facility levy at a 55 percent level of voter approval. “A plant facility levy at $2 per $1,000 assessed taxable valuation would require a 55 percent voter approval and would generate approximately $8.8 million in year one.”

$8.8 million is the exact number shown in Table 7.1 for LPOSD’s expected 2016 revenue from the new levy. So the amount LPSOD asked for was limited to raising taxes to a $2 per $1,000 assessed taxable valuation threshold. Why?

It is maximum a school district can ask for under the 55 percent voter approval rule.

Per State Statute (Title 33, Education, Chapter 8, Budget And Tax Levy), the 55 percent level of voter approval can only approve a levy up to $2 per $1000 assessed.

Which in LPOSD’s case yields a $55,000,000 levy ceiling.

This implies the levy’s amount was set at the maximum allowed to avoid the next voter approval level of 60 percent.

MIKE NEFF

Sandpoint