Tax levies pass for several Idaho school districts

BOISE - Voters in counties and towns across much of Idaho agreed to get behind public schools Tuesday by approving levies to bolster school funding for programs and facilities.

Levies were approved by voters in the cities of Nampa, Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls and Harrison, as well as in northern Idaho counties of Bonner and Boundary.

But not all schools will be getting voter-approved financial relief.

A request for the St. Maries Joint School District failed with about 52 percent of voters opposed to the proposal. In eastern Idaho, 60 percent of voters in Salmon rejected a levy request for the eighth straight time since the district began asking in 2005.

The Salmon School District 291 was seeking approval of a $14.6 million levy to pay for a new school for kindergarten through eighth grade students. District officials will now likely move forward with an application seeking to tap a state revolving loan fund for the construction cash.

"The state recognizes there is a need here," superintendent Joey Foote said Wednesday.

The Public Schools Facilities Cooperative Funding Program, created in 2006 by the Legislature, has $15.8 million available for districts with unsafe buildings and unable to raise money locally.

Voters also rejected levy requests in the small, southwest Idaho town of Middleton. The District failed to receive the two-thirds voter approval to pass its proposed 10-year, $250,000 plant-and-facilities levy.

In south central Idaho, voters in the Cassia Joint School District rejected a $23 million levy sought to help pay for facilities. The levy would have replaced an existing $10 million levy set to expire this year. The plant levy has been in place for about 60 years and is used to fund expenses like general maintenance, major repairs and improvements at the district's 59 buildings.