Rosalia will try again on levy in fall

The Town of Rosalia had the lone failing levy proposal in the Feb. 14 special election, with election night returns showing the street fund levy at approximately 54 percent approval. The levy needed 60 percent to pass.

Rosalia Mayor Nanette Konishi told the Gazette the town will plan to try again on its levy in November.

“We knew going in that there was a chance it wouldn’t pass,” said Konishi. “It’s always difficult to run a levy in February because you don’t get the same turnout you would in the November election.”

The town chose to run its levy on the ballot alongside the Rosalia park and recreation and school levies in order to share costs for the election, as well as to be able to know ahead of budget planning for the next year that funds would be in place. If the levy had been approved, funds from it would not have been available until 2018.

The $69,000 levy at an estimated $3.35 per $1,000 of assessed valuation was intended to be used for street lights, seal coating, shoulder work and capital improvements.

Konishi said the town will now focus on communicating to the public the needs for streets so the levy can pass the second time around in November.

“Between now and then, we’ll do a better job of getting the word out to our citizens,” the mayor said. “This just means you need to do a better job of communicating.”

Konishi said she understands that people may feel strapped right now, especially with a recent rise in sewer rates in Rosalia to help the town pay off its sewer project loan.

“People are feeling it in their wallets right now,” she said.

Konishi also expressed that she wishes levies could be run for longer periods of time, giving the example of running a three-year levy instead of one-year, which is not allowed.

“Sometimes I wish you could run a three-year street levy so you don’t have to put it on the ballot every year,” she said. “People just feel bombarded.”

Konishi said she also hopes the November election brings out more voters. The overall turnout for this election, with six measures on it from across the county, was at 37 percent at first count of ballots last week.

“You have less than half your people making decisions that effect everybody,” she said.

Two other levies in Rosalia were passing as of election night. The Rosalia School District, which needs 50 percent plus one to pass its capital levy for safety, security and infrastructure improvements, was passing at 61 percent of the county vote. That was a multi-county measure, and the Spokane County vote was also passing with 67 percent. The Rosalia Park District proposition, also a multi-county vote, was passing at 62 percent in Whitman County, but failing at 56 percent (nine yes, seven no) in Spokane County. The Whitman County vote, however, is enough to keep the average at 61.9 percent, so the measure is still passing.

Other measures on the ballot include the Lamont School District maintenance and operation levy, passing at 63 percent; the Colton School District levy, passing at 70 percent, and the Tekoa park district levy, passing at 72 percent.

On election night last week, 820 ballots were counted, and 50 were estimated to be remaining. Because of the low number left to count, elections officials made the decision to not do another count until the election certification date on Feb. 24. At that time, the remaining ballots will be counted, and the election results finalized. The current ballots counted equal out to a 37 percent voter turnout, with approximately 2,200 ballots having been sent out to 13 precincts.