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Resident urges West Jefferson board to end or reduce supplemental levy
Summary
A community member told the board the district has become "dependent" on its supplemental levy and urged the board not to renew it or to reduce it so it ends within two years, citing pay increases and past pay cuts as reasons to re-evaluate levy use.
During public comment, a resident identified in the record as Mr. Hansen urged the board to reconsider reliance on the supplemental levy, saying the district budgets levy funds similarly to state funds and that recent increases in employee compensation make continued levy reliance inappropriate.
Mr. Hansen recounted that in 2012 district employees took a 3% pay cut and that a supplemental levy was proposed then to avoid repeating such cuts. He said the district has since budgeted the supplemental funds year-to-year and, in his view, failed to use recent state funding increases as an opportunity to reduce or end the levy. He recommended not renewing the levy this year or proposing a reduced levy with a two-year sunset.
He cited payroll examples from material included in the public packet (as summarized in the transcript): a bus driver with a 132% compensation increase, a teacher with a 38% increase, a custodian with 22% and a technology supervisor with 29% over the past three years; the speaker characterized the district's average compensation increase at about 20% over three years.
Board response: The meeting record does not show the board acted on the levy during this session; the comment was recorded during public comment and no formal vote or staff direction on the levy is recorded in the transcript.
