More Murphy Winter less Krieg in these SECB writeups, please and thank you. I appreciate the reduction in smug zoomer nonsense.

So the ECB members have been sleeping with the proponents of social housing and school levies.

Good to know.

If you like Seattle’s high housing costs, high sales tax, high rent, and poor streets: then keep funding these initiatives.
If you would like to send a message to our leaders that we are not a bottomless well of money, and that you would like a more efficient bureaucracy, then vote against these initiatives.
We have already paid for these services many times and they have not been delivered.
What is the definition of insanity?

Consider that the district cannot make up its mind if and which schools it may close. SPS has gone through many painful public exercises to shutter up to 21 schools (nearly 1/5 buildings!) and then decide actually zero — except that maybe soon we will actually close schools. Voters should not be funding capital projects until the Board demonstrates some vision for its future.

Charging a flat 30 percent of income may be good politics but can't really be called "equity" (unless it was meant tongue-in-cheek). Thirty percent of $2,000 a month is obviously a much heavier burden than 30 percent of $10,000 a month. That said, count me in.

Instead of supporting these two levies, we should pressure our state legislators to fully comply with the McClatchy decision and fully fund the district. In other words, statewide taxes should be raised. This is the time for the legislature to pass an income tax and see whether the state Supreme Court will uphold it. ( Unlike decades ago when such a tax was turned down. )

Don't vote for school levies, considering what they're inundating kids with these days.

It will be interesting to see if voters punish the school district for the unsustainable union contract and the empty threats to close the schools. Personally, I plan to vote for the school levy, but I wouldn’t blame anyone who said screw ‘em, they deserve a budget cut for their shenanigans.

I am undecided on the capital levy but isn’t the problem not that they are replacing an elementary school but they won’t say which one? Just that it’s “in the NE” somewhere? Where there are about 20. Kind of weird to ask for 150 million just for “if we want it for something.”

@1 >> love Krieg, miss Rich, getting use to Winter. Ahh change.
@2 >> Rich's endorsement of Prop 1A would have been better, at least a few F-bombs for the council's attempt to change social housing to be entirely low-income city-administered housing. The city has Jump Start money, they can get into that game if they want to already but so far have (wisely) chose to partner with the regional response. Go social or go (guess I can't say "home" here).
@3 >> where do you think is better than Seattle? I am probably not the only one to tell you to go there. Texas hates taxes, you should go there... of course Texas leaders seem to hate their people so you will fit in.
@4 >> Yep. Close one or two schools a year and re-assess. Closing 20 schools in a year was the height of arrogance.
@5 >> 30%? missing something.
@6 >> yep. What is proposed instead is SB5020 that provides wealthy seniors a shield so they don't pay state or local taxes to fund schools. Shameful Rs! How about free transit for seniors! That would cost a fraction of SB5020 and really help seniors living on the edge of poverty.
@7 >> Texas doesn't like taxes... you should live there.
@8 >> Unsustainable union contract? really? Public school teachers are the best deal that you have ever gotten in your entire life! I hear Mississippi has poorly compensated teachers, give them a try!

Thanks for the comments all...

@6 Totally agree, go for an income tax test case and full state school funding -- but in the meantime vote yes on the levies. (Budget cutting never, ever, leads to better schools. I understand why some people think it should, but in the real world it just doesn't.)

@7 "Inundated" with what, exactly? That's some MAGA-level innuendo.

@11 the legislature approved the initiative last year that banned an income tax so they can't make any changes to the initiative for at least 2 years. Beyond that to create an income tax they would need to pass a constitutional amendment and then put it to a vote of the people. The Supreme Court had their opportunity to revisit the previous decision on income as property last year during the capital gains tax debate and they passed. You are not going to get a case in front of them. Right now the Dems do not have the supermajorities needed to pass a constitutional amendment (the R's definitely won't vote for this) so at best you are looking at 2 years out and then hoping people in WA would vote for this. I personally don't think it would pass a statewide referendum.

All of this ignores the fact that tax revenue has grown in the state faster than both population and inflation. Revenue is not the issue here, its about priorities. The state could direct funds to education but they would in turn have to reduce investments in other programs. I would still have an issue with SPS signing an agreement with their union knowing they could not pay it and hoping the state comes to bail them out. That is bad governance and should make you wonder if given additional funds whether they would manage them appropriately or just end up in a similar situation a few years from now.

STEB continues to live an alternative universe.

Seattle Public Schools has a board that WANTS to close schools. School closures are not off the table, and there is an appetite to close Option Schools. It is time for STEB to actually involve themselves with Seattle Public Schools or refrain from making school board and other endorsements when it comes to Seattle PublicSchools.

And why would you support $2.5B levies when we have a board that did away with the finance committee, decreased audit committee meetings, increased board approved capital expenditures from $1M to $5M and more. Please.

Vote NO on the capital levy and send a message to the board. They can put another levy on the ballot.

Dear jmath aka #10,
As my mamaw from Mississippi says, there’s a big hole in your screen door.
As my daddy from Texas says, you’re all hat and no cattle.
As my Canadian wife says, you’re dumber than a goose deuce.
As we say in Seattle, are you in the Transit Riders Union?
Thanks for your critique of everyone.

You guys are dumbasses about 1A. Its a horrible idea, as a 35yr capitol hill resident older than you.

@10: “Public school teachers are the best deal that you have ever gotten in your entire life! I hear Mississippi has poorly compensated teachers, give them a try!”

Thanks, but I’ve gotten way better deals in my life than I ever got from the public schools. 😉 Besides, I literally said, “Personally, I plan to vote for the school levy.” 😆 Don’t tell me your beloved public school teachers didn’t teach you reading comprehension! 🤣

The school district awarded a union contact in 2022 knowing that it wouldn’t have the money to pay for it. Now that the bill is coming due, they’re threatening to close schools.

They play this game every time: They demand the teacher raise, or they threaten to go on strike and then mom will have to stay home with the kids instead of working. Then to pay for the teacher raise, they demand a tax increase or they threaten to close the neighborhood schools and then little Timmy will have to spend two hours a day getting bused.

It’s just threat after threat after threat, no matter how much money we shovel at them. They get away with it because they have a strong hand. Mom’s gotta get to work, and nobody wants little Timmy to get bused. But you can’t keep abusing the public over and over and expect not to get stung, even if the sting hurts the public, too. See: two-time president Donald Trump. 😂

I'm with #13 - STEB does NOT know Seattle Schools. They might take the time to ask people who actually know the district. I'm one of them.

It's an interesting thing because before I put my endorsements for SPS up at my blog - Seattle Schools Community Forum blog - I already had enraged parents saying they would not vote for the capital levy (BEX). They all are voting for the very important Operations levy.

STEB sniffed at any pushback on the mystery school in the NE that will get a $150M rebuild. Why shouldn't voters expect clarity on a levy? No one is saying there are not any schools that need that rebuild but which one and why? That's the basic minimum.

Next, do not fool yourself. The district is building very large schools in anticipation of closing small ones. They are renovating Montlake Elementary to fit over 600 students; that site has the smallest plot of almost any other elementary. That means in order to have a large building to fit all those kids, they took away playground space. From little kids. Some other elementary will close to fill that mega-school. Ditto over in West Seattle. And, the district isn't going to give those schools assistant principals. One person in charge of all that? Nope.

And to understand, other districts in our region do NOT pay anywhere near what SPS pays for renovations. One good example is Rainier Beach High School. Their first budget was $240M and in contrast Garfield High was rebuilt for half that. But they keep have costs arising that they KNEW about when they created the original budget. The Board just okayed another $750k. By the end of all the building, I predict their budget will put them in the list of 10 most expensive high schools in the country. That's not a badge of honor.

To put out there, I advocated for YEARS for RBHS to be rebuilt. Somehow they were always at the bottom of the BEX list. They deserve the building. But there is no way it has to cost this much and that's on SPS.

The district has borrowed capital dollars to fill the budget deficit. No truly smart district would do this and yet here we are. When do those dollars get paid back?

One other fun fact. As others have mentioned, the district wanted to close nearly all the Option Schools. Those schools are not cookie-cutter schools and offer safety to some students who cannot do a regular school. What's weird is that despite being hugely popular AND with good performance, the district refuses to move their waitlists even when there is clearly room.

Vote NO on the BEX capital levy. It is the only way to make the district hear that they need to 1)listen to parents, 2) believe parents, and 3) take parents seriously.

@12 The income tax ban initiative is probably an unconstitutional constraint on legislative power. Tim Eyman tried something along those lines a decade or so ago and was slapped down pretty fast. But I can understand why Democrats and tax reform advocates might choose other battles right now.

@10 Read the article, and you'll know what I was referring to in #5.

Funding anything with propety taxes in this city is the worst idea ever.
We need an state income tax.

Until then I'm voting no on:
Schools, Proposition 1
Schools, Proposition 2

@6: if you're referring to McCleary, et al. v. Washington (Supreme Court Case Number 84362-7), then it's the McCleary Decision. Which clearly the Legislature is still figuring out how to fund.

@3 I couldn't agree more, and voted no on the school district props for that exact reason.

Just an aside though - the definition of insanity is not that oft quoted "doing the same thing and expecting a different result." Insanity has never meant that.. Look it up if you must.

Well, here I am, a last-minute voter representing my household. So I did "our" homework, and we are going with Yes/1A and yes on both school propositions because who could say no to those kids on my flyer? (No I'm not that easily manipulated, but) I also noticed that these building improvements will include air quality -- and I think that will reduce the spread of viruses via the schools which are filled with little viral containers who then go forth in their communities and share the love even more.

On 1A vs 1B, Mayor Harrell speaking for B sent 3 flyers to our home and not one of them was addressed to "moi," who has been voting in almost election in the United States for 50 years. Little did he suspect that family elder is not only "not" politically obsolete, but that everyone else is so busy, they relied on "moi" todo the homework and make the decision for everyone. Also, the Stranger sent 1 flyer to our home for 1A and included each person's name on it. And I was impressed by that detail, so I voted for 1A. (No, just kidding here, as well.) But "we" thought both sides had some good arguments but ultimately with 1A because IB does not raise enough money, and they'll just have to be on their toes to demonstrate effective results given concerns about how much money is being handed over to mere novices with stars in their eyes. But we need to try something.