Vote-by-mail ballots for the Feb. 9 special election are being distributed to voters this Friday, Jan. 22. Voters in Bonney Lake and Sumner will note that the ballots include levy measures for both Dieringer and Sumner school districts. Both are ad valorem property tax levies that would replace existing levies. Levy dollars pay the costs of educational operations that the state does not cover.

The Dieringer Educational Programs and Operations levy would cover years 2011 and 2012. The maximum cost of the levy will be $5,650,000 for the first year and $6,050,000 for the second. The amount collected would decrease if state support remains stable.

Levy dollars fund 28 percent of Dieringer’s operations. The largest portion of levy funds goes to teachers, teaching support and educational programs. Other funding areas include transportation, student activities and high school tuition. As Dieringer includes no high schools, the district pays its graduating students tuition for any public high school in the state.

The Sumner Educational Programs, Maintenance and Operation Levy would cover 2011 through 2014, and would replace the previous levy passed in 2006. The total dollar value of the proposed levy authority is lower than that of the levy it would replace. It is $17 million for 2011, $18 million for 2012, $19 million for 2013 and $21 million for 2014.

The estimated tax cost to individual property owners for the Sumner levy, in the first year, is $2.93 per $1,000 of property value.

For more information on the levy proposals, please visit the Pierce County elections Web site at www.co.pierce.wa.us.