After Levies Fail, Will Districts Re-Run Them? We Asked Officials

With 1 of two Kennewick, Prosser and Finley school operations levies failing last week, the next question would be, will Districts re-run them? Kennewick voters passed their tech upgrades levy but like Finley and Prosser, failed the larger operations levy.

We reached out to area officials about re-running levies

We contacted Finley and Kennewick School officials. Have not heard from Finley yet, we'd asked if they were going to try again and if (due to very close margin-five votes) if a recount was going to be done.

Kennewick responded via email from Robyn Chastain, Communications Director. It read in part:

"Local taxes are collected and distributed by calendar year. The last levies passed were for four years from 2018-2022. School district budgets run from June through July."

As for whether they will try again, we will find out soon:

"The school board has announced that they will hold a special board meeting on Wednesday for the purpose of discussing the levy. They could decide to re-run the levy. The earliest date the school district could put another ballot measure in front of voters is in April. If a levy is passed this calendar year, there would be no interruption to funding."

So, this week we will find out if Kennewick will give it another try. We have also reached out to Prosser as well. We will update with more information as it becomes available.