Vancouver voters are favoring a measure renewing Vancouver’s Affordable Housing Fund for another 10 years. Voters were approving a replacement levy in Vancouver Public Schools and but were rejecting levies in Washougal and Woodland.
In the first set of election results released Tuesday night, the city of Vancouver’s Proposition 3 was leading with 51.9 percent of the vote.
If approved, the levy would raise $100 million over 10 years starting in 2024 for affordable-housing development and preservation, temporary shelters, homelessness prevention, and rental and home ownership assistance.
The measure would increase the current property tax levy sustaining the fund from 18 cents to about 30 cents per $1,000 in assessed property value. The levy would cost Vancouver homeowners an estimated $150 per year for a home with a $500,000 assessed value. The cost could decrease as the city’s assessed property value grows.
School measures
Vancouver Public Schools’ replacement education and operations levy, which would replace existing levies when they expire at the end of 2023, was leading Tuesday night with 55.37 percent of the vote.
The district is asking voters for $271.9 million over four years at an estimated collections rate of $1.99 per $1,000 assessed property value. This is not a new tax, rather a renewal of a current measure. The measure, if approved, would provide the district funding for programs not supported by the state, including extracurricular activities and additional staffing supports for security, counseling, nursing and more.
Early results show two levies in the Washougal School District trailing in initial results. The levies, which would replace existing levies set to expire at the end of this year that support extracurricular activities, athletics, technology, maintenance and safety needs not covered by state or federal funds. As of Thursday, they were with 45.72 percent and 46.34 percent of the vote.
Voters in the Woodland School District, which includes portions of Clark and Cowlitz counties were voting down a replacement levy to support programs and staff not funded by the state when it expires at the end of this year. That measure has received only 43.23 percent of the vote.
Clark County Elections reported 22.44 percent voter turnout based on ballots counted so far. There are 17,000 ballots on hand that remain to be counted in Clark County, and more are likely to arrive by mail in the next several days.
The next batch of results will be posted at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.
