In the next few weeks the voters of Centralia School District will be asked to pass a levy. I encourage you to vote “no” on this levy. Our school district has poorly managed their financial affairs and has lost our trust as good managers of the district money. They have fully disclosed that they don’t have enough money to make it through the next few years. However, this situation was completely preventable, as they agreed this past year to spend money on increased salaries, and the money they agreed to spend was actually money they did not have. This school district works for us, the voters, and we need to ensure they manage their financial affairs like the rest of us are required. We all need to live within a budget, and if we don’t have the money we can’t spend it. The school district has mismanaged the money they have been given.
The School District is increasing the levy from $1.50 per thousand to $2.50 per thousand at a time in which our property values are increasing by over 20 percent. When you consider the increase in tax rate and the increase in property values, this new tax is a whopping 100 percent more than what we previously paid in 2019! Very rarely, if at all, in my lifetime can I remember experiencing a 100-percent increase in tax over a period of two years. The district is simply asking us to bail them out of the financial mess they have created. They claim that they are getting less money and that certain services will not be available if this levy is not passed, but they are actually receiving more money per student than they ever have. If they have been given more money per student, why are they claiming that certain services to the students will not be provided without this levy? Why can’t they provide the services they always have with the increased funding they already have? Don’t give the school district the bailout. Vote “no” on the Centralia School District levy. They can ask for something more appropriate in April.
Jeremy Corwin
Centralia
