SEQUIM — Voters in the Sequim School District will be asked to pony up a combined $5.4 million in 2005 and 2006 through a special replacement maintenance and operations levy election ending Feb. 3.

Ballots for the levy request will be mailed out Wednesday to all district voters — most of whom live in Clallam County, but a few who reside in Gardiner in Jefferson County.

Mail ballots must be postmarked by midnight Feb. 3.

Based on updated real property valuations, levy passage would mean each property owner would continue to pay about $1.20 per $1,000 of assessed value, or $120 annually on property valued at $100,000.

Sequim Schools Superintendent Garn Christensen said the levy system may sound foreign to residents newly arriving from other states that fund schools and other public services through a state income tax.

“It’s important to recognize the difference here, where many (voters) have come from a state where maintenance and operations levies were not needed because the majority of all funding comes directly from the state,” Christensen said.

———

The rest of the story appears in the Friday/Saturday Peninsula Daily News.