Whether you’ve seen the fierce neighborly arguments on Next-door, or the prominent sign battle on island crest, you’ve surely heard about the proposed $165 million bond introduced by the Mercer Island school board that would address key infrastructure projects throughout the district that will be on the ballot for April 2025.
Although there is strong opposition against voting “no”, I encourage you to vote “yes” on the bond because it will have little impact on the taxes you pay for the amount of improvement that it will bring to our schools. Contrary to popular belief the bond will not raise taxes by 40% as the “vote no” signs say. The bond is estimated to raise the taxes that go to the school district by 29%, which sounds like a lot but in reality, that means the bond will raise the taxes by .40 cents from $1.39 to $1.89 per $1,000 of assessed home value for 14 years. Which is still below what taxpayers were paying pre-2018 at $2.70 per $1,000 of assessed home value, when inflation was lower.
On the Mercer Islanders for Sustainable Spending (MISS) website which is the main opposition for voting no against the bond their first main argument is that you should vote no because of declining academic performance within the district. They argue that “1 in 4 students are not on track for college-level learning without remedial classes”, which may be a real problem in the district, but has nothing to do with the bond itself, and has more to do with the students. MISS only states a reason why not vote for the bond but no solution or alternative for voting for the bond.
While the community did not get everything they asked for in the bond, the unanimous 5 – 0 vote by the school board to approve the bond plan shows how much the school district needs to remodel our nearly 60-year-old schools to help improve modern STEAM and arts learning spaces, and to enhance security on all campuses. These needed improvements are long overdue, and if we vote “no” prices will only go up and it will cost more to make these improvements in the future. Vote Yes!
