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Ashland youth levy renewal backed By Wendy Siporen of the Mail Tribune ASHLAND -- The Ashland Schools Coalition will ask the Ashland School Board Monday to scrap its plans to pursue a $1.93 million local option levy on the May ballot and instead ask voters to renew for the second time a youth activities levy through city government. During a work session with the school board this week, the group leaned toward a property tax rate of $1.385 per $1,000 of assessed property value, which should bring in approximately $1.5 million annually to the city for extra-curricular activities. The coalition still must decide how many years to ask voters to approve. "The local option is too complicated to be levied and communicated to the public," said district superintendent John Daggett. "We're sticking with something the community knows." Ashland's youth activities levy was first approved in 1994 for $970,000 to help make up the shortfall in school funding caused by state property tax limitations approved in 1990. Voters renewed the three-year levy in 1997 at a new level of $1.1 million. It expires this year. In January, the school board endorsed the idea of a local-option levy because it has the advantage of coming directly to the school district -- rather than going through the city budget -- and isn't restricted to extracurricular activities. Board members also reasoned the local option levy would bring in the $1.8 million annually they say the school district needs to maintain current services. But coalition members later discovered that if voters approved the local option levy for $1.8 million, the school district would be able to collect only $1.1 million to $1.2 million because of complications in the way the tax is calculated and assessed. The advantage of the activities levy is that, if it were approved, the district could count on approximately $1.5 million for the 2000-2001 school year. "We're going to be a little lean," said Daggett of the activities levy option. "We hope that this is temporary and hope with better language (for the local option levy) we can go back to that in the future." The youth activities levy currently funds facility maintenance and a variety of activities, including music, language, newspaper, yearbook, debate, drama and sports. The largest portion of the funds goes to sports programs at the high school. Approximately $100,000 of the levy annually goes to programs run by the Parks and Recreation Department, including summer programs at Garfield Park and the teen activity center. The City Council also will have to approve putting the levy request on the ballot. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA