The Snoqualmie Valley School District is knocking on our door again for more money. It seems to never end, so let’s take a long and hard look at what they are asking for, and what it means to us, the folks that pay the bill.

The maintenance and operations levy is the way the local schools can make up the difference between what the school system “burns” in the way of money, and what they receive, or are allowed to receive via state law and state funding. Is it necessary? Well, I think so. The state formula is roughly stone age education and I don’t think that is what we want in the Valley. The issue then becomes “how much?”

The requested amount is a firm total amount apportioned across each real estate owner based on value. As value goes down, the amount stays (relatively) the same, because relativity is the key factor in the levy. All values are relative to each other as this levy goes.

The requested amount is roughly a 20 percent increase from the current levy. While the numbers seem to be rational, the amount of increase does not seem unreasonable as we have aging infrastructure with increasing maintenance needs

But the devil is in the details. Each year, this will continue to increase. We will be voting for an immediate 20 percent increase and then annual increases of 10 percent each year after that, for a total of a 150 percent increase. It looks like a bad idea to vote for this one. It is increasing at roughly triple the average rate of inflation! That doesn’t sound like a good idea. It is time to say “no” to this one.

Let’s look at the technology levy. The first year increase is a whopping 135 percent. It stays constant over the four-year timeframe of the levy. What I can’t get over is the initial increase of 135 percent! I can’t recall getting a 135 percent annual raise in the last few years. How about you?

The comparative place of our district in the local ‘technology race’ is not of concern. Let’s spend every dollar appropriately, and not as a way to rank ourselves in how much we spend. I suggest the only thing that matters is how well we spend our money, not how much we spend.

I know that we need to finance education appropriately, and place the education of our children at one of the highest places in our hearts and minds, but these increases in this economy do not show me either a solid financial management plan, or a sensitivity to the situation that the constituency is facing these days. It reeks of government action that is not in keeping with the desires of the voting public and a complete insensitivity to the last few school ballot measure attempts (two of which failed miserably) to hike our school spending by huge amounts.

Ladies and gentlemen of the school board, “our elected leadership,” the past has shown us what the future needs to be: sound planning, sound financial management and a direction that doesn’t blow with the wind, fall prey to a contest on spending, or ignore the dictates of the voting population. The message looks clear to me — we need to turn both of these levies down, in favor of seeing a better idea, and a reasonable and sound financial spending plan for the future.

Doug Dickinson

North Bend