Moses Lake Voters Shoot Down School District Levy Twice

Moses Lake School District officials how say they will be facing some hard decisions.(pictured is Moses Lake HS)

   MLSD levy fails for a second time in 2024

During the period coming out of COVID, a number of WA State school districts saw levies fail, including some districts known for consistently passing them.

Kennewick, River View and others saw voters shoot down proposals, Kennewick re-ran theirs and it passed.

Now Moses Lake has seen theirs be defeated a second time. According to the Columbia Basin Herald,  the vote tally from Tuesday's ballot came back with 3,947 no votes, compared to 3,094 in favor, roughly a 56 to 43 percent margin.

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The Herald says voter turnout was slightly lower than in the February vote, but the margin of defeat was slightly wider than in February.  The Educational Programs and Operations, Or EP & O levy makes up 10 percent of the District's budget.

Some of the programs funded by the levy included librarians, nurses, counselors, and school resource officers. School officials now say they will begin to look over the entire budget, and likely have to make some hard decisions.

According to the WA State and Grant County Auditors, MLSD levies had consistently passed since 2009 until this year. By state law, they cannot try to run another one until February of 2025.