Kennewick Will Re-Try Levy on April Ballot–Get Details Here

After the Kennewick School District's Operations Levy was rejected by voters by a margin of 51.04 to 48.96 percent (defeated by 432 votes) Kennewick officials say they are going to try it again.

Kennewick Operations Levy Will be on April Ballot

At the Wednesday (February 16th) Kennewick School Board meeting, the board verbally agreed to move ahead with the District's plan to re-try the levy.

Voters did approve the other levy, which will make tech improvements for schools, but rejected the larger operations levy.

  Board Member says Official vote and recommendation coming February 23

Councilmember Gabe Galbreath confirmed the public information that the District will retry the levy on the April ballot.  It will be a two-year levy with rates set at $1.75 and $1.90 per every $1,000 of assessed home value. The matter was discussed during their open meeting Wednesday evening. The $1.75 is the first year, the $1.90 for the second year.

He said the board will formally vote on the matter during their February 23rd meeting. Kennewick's was one of four area levies that failed in February. Prosser, Finley, and Othello rejected their levies, Othello is a split-county (Franklin and Adams) and while the bulk of the votes are from Adams, it failed in both counties. 

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Officials are hoping for better turnouts.  Benton County saw only just over 29 percent of voters cast ballots, while in Franklin it was just over 25 percent, in Adams, just over 30 percent.

 Finley officials are waiting for the final election certification which will be finished Friday, February 18th, before deciding if they will re-run their levy. Officials said due to the close vote (it failed by 5 votes) the recount and re-examining they are hoping perhaps it will be enough to get it to the 'yes' status.