The Ferndale School District announced in their summer newsletter that they will continue to request local funding for district-wide programming and operations in the form of a Maintenance and Operations Levy. This will be put to the voters February 2016.
According to the newsletter article
The levy pays for 25% of everything it takes to keep the district running at its current level.
When the current tax runs out, the new one will kick in. It might be a few cents more per thousand dollars of assessed value, but it will be close to the same amount.
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Recognizing how the recent Washington State Legislature increased the amount budgeted for education (but not enough according to the court), the district points out that even with recent increases,
they have not yet fully funded education as called for in the state constitution, and they did not lessen our dependence on local funding. Therefore, we need to run another levy in February 2016 to replace the one that will expire at the end of the year.
The following is based on information made available to voters regarding the current but soon to expire voter-approved levy as it provides for the following tax revenues and assessments:
| Collection Year | Approximate Levy Rate per $1,000 Assessed Value |
Levy Amount | tax on $200k property |
| 2013 | $3.52 | $13,000,000 | $704.00 |
| 2014 | $3.45 | $13,500,000 | $690.00 |
| 2015 | $3.43 | $14,500,000 | $686.00 |
| 2016 | $3.53 | $15,500,000 | $706.00 |
The current 2015 assessment rate is actually 3.70% (according to Whatcom County Auditor property records) which results in a $740 tax due on a $200k property.