Corvallis School Board to Put Tax Levy Renewal on November’s Ballot

Once again, Corvallis voters are going to be asked to keep a familiar line item on their property tax bill. The school board voted during a special session Wednesday, Aug. 12, to send a renewal of its local option levy to the November ballot, and if that phrase gives you deja vu, it should. This is the fourth time voters have been asked to keep this thing going since it first passed in 2006.

Here’s the arithmetic. The levy pulls in $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value, and if renewed, it would run another five years, kicking in July 2027 right as the current version sunsets. By state law, voters can either extend these levies every five years, or they can sunset.

Voters have said yes before, and not exactly reluctantly. It squeaked by with a little over 51% support back in 2006, but Benton County’s election results show the margins got a lot more comfortable in 2010, 2016, and 2022. Third time really is the charm, apparently — three renewals in twenty years, no rejections.

So what does $11.3 million, which is this year’s haul, actually buy? Well, PE, art, and music for elementary kids. High school athletics and extracurriculars. Career and technical education. Counseling services. It’s not pocket change, either — Wolfe told the board this week the levy makes up around 10% of the district’s operating revenue and keeps 67 full-time staff employed.

Worth remembering. Option levy dollars are separate from what the state kicks in, which is tied to enrollment. And enrollment has not been kind to Corvallis schools lately. Declining numbers have already forced staff and program cuts, and the district went ahead last fall with a consolidation plan that closed Cheldelin Middle School and Letitia Carson Elementary, folded sixth graders into every elementary school, turned Mountain View into a K-8, and rebranded Linus Pauling as Corvallis Junior High for seventh and eighth graders.

Here’s the number that tells the real story, though. At the time of the last renewal, this same levy was generating just under $9 million a year — but supporting around 90 positions. Now it’s up to $11.3 million and covering only 67. Do that math and you get a district where costs are climbing faster than the levy can keep pace with.

“That’s why we still need these dollars,” Wolfe told the board.

Voters will get the final word in November.

To contact Chris Evenson about this story, email office@corvallisadvocate.com