Voters in the Corvallis School District will decide next month whether to renew an operating levy.
The special option levy is in addition to the standard property taxes that help fund public schools. The district says the tax pays for about 75 full-time teaching positions, which would potentially be eliminated if the measure fails. The levy is expected to raise around $46 million over the next five years.
“It doesn’t increase taxes," said Corvallis School Board chair Sarah Finger McDonald. "It just asks our community to keep investing in programs that the community has told us they value.”
Voters last renewed the levy in 2016. It passed with 78 percent of the vote. Most of the Corvallis School District is in Benton County, but a portion of the district is in Linn County.
One person filed a statement against the levy in the Benton County voters pamphlet. Scott Newsham, a former Corvallis School Board member, argued that student enrollment numbers do not justify the levy's renewal.