VOTE411 Voter Guide

The following nonpartisan report was prepared by the League of Women Voters of Lane County.Crow-Applegate-Lorane School District No 66, Renew Five-Year Local Option Levy for General School OperationsQUESTION: Shall C-A-L continue to levy $1.50 per $1,000 assessed value for general operations for 5 years beginning FY 2025-2026? This measure renews current local option taxes.FINANCIAL IMPACT:This measure renews the current local option levy of up to $1.50 per $1,00 of assessed value. The local option levy is estimated to raise revenue of $2,039, 040 over the next 5 years, broken down as flows:26/27 $395,52027/28 $407,04028/29 $420,48029/30 $432,000Note: Assessed value (AV) is the value used to calculate property tax. It is shown on the property tax statement. It is NOT the same as real market value (RMV), which is the market price of the home.PROBABLE RESULTS OF A “YES” VOTE:Property tax rates will not increase because this is a renewal of the existing levy at the current rate. School operations that are funded by the current levy will continue.PROBABLE RESULTS OF A “NO” VOTE:If Measure 20-370 does not pass, school operations would not be funded as proposed. Because the current levy will expire, taxes will decrease by $1.50 per $1000 of assessed value.BACKGROUND: The Crow-Applegate-Lorane (C-A-L) school district is one of only 6 of the 197 Oregon school districts, along with the Eugene 4J school district in Lane County, to have a local option levy, according to the Eugene Register Guard in 2019. At that time, the CAL school district had 242 students and the local option money made up about 5% of its general fund budget for the 2018-2019 school year. There is no information available on the percentage of the general fund budget that the local option levy in this measure would make up. The district has grown from 229 students in 2017-2018 to 295 students in 2023-2024, bucking the overall state public school population which has dropped from 580,684 in 2017-1028 to 542,271 students in 2023-2024.In May 2019 voters approved a local option levy of up to $1.50 per $1,000 assessed value to support the CAL school district operations. This measure renews that levy at the same rate. Taxpayers in the school district have supported local option levies for the CAL school district for over 25 years.The current voter-approved local option levy provides funding for retaining teachers and staff and for instructional programing. Without continuation of the revenue from this levy, the district will need to reduce the budget by an estimated $384,000 in the 25/26 school year.