Idaho Students Are Stuck in Trailers as Voters Reject Bonds for Schools
Idaho Students Are Stuck in Trailers as Voters Reject Bonds for Schools
(Bloomberg) -- Voters in Idaho are poised to reject most school bond proposals that were up for election Tuesday, sending officials back to the drawing board on how to handle overcrowding amid surging population growth.
Three of the four general-obligation school bond measures on ballots Tuesday were failing, according to unofficial results as of Wednesday morning. Together with supplemental levies, which often help cover school operating costs, more than $280 million was up for a vote. Many of the levies are on track to pass, though they only require a simple majority, unlike bonds which need super-majorities to pass in Idaho.
The state, as well as its neighbor Utah, is in the midst of a population boom driven by West Coast transplants. That trend accelerated when the pandemic untethered workers from their offices, and the influx of residents has some school districts bursting at the seams.
Idaho’s population grew 3.4% between April 2020 and July 2021, the fastest in the nation by more than a percentage point. In the decade since the 2010 census, the population has swelled by 17%.
A $55 million bond for the Vallivue School District appears to have failed by only a few percentage points, according to unofficial results from Canyon County. The district, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of Boise, planned to use the funds to build two new elementary schools and buy land for future development. Four of the seven existing elementary schools are over capacity, forcing teachers to work in portable classrooms and making it harder to hire.
“We are up against the wall and we need to take care of our kids,” said Joey Palmer, director of district programs. Palmer said the rural district is starting to feel the effects of urban sprawl from what he called “California political refugees” who move in and enroll their children. “We are outgrowing our portable buildings to the point where we don’t have space to add additional portable buildings,” he said.
Without the funds, Vallivue may be forced to increase classroom sizes or redraw district boundary lines. In the worst case, officials may consider year-round schooling and a system where groups of students rotate one-month breaks.
Voters also were rejecting a Jefferson Joint School District $80 million bond measure that would have funded a variety of projects to grow capacity, including construction of a new middle school and remodeling of an existing one. Student enrollment has grown 63% since the 2005-2006 school year, according to a presentation on the bond.
The population surge, combined with inflation, helped Idaho rake in sales taxes at a rate that outpaced every other state in the country. Collections rose by almost 40% compared to pre-pandemic levels, the most out of 43 states tracked by the Urban Institute. Overall, Idaho collected more than $5 billion of revenue in the 2021 fiscal year, its largest intake ever.
A growing population can be a windfall for the state’s muni debt, as more residents become eligible to take advantage of the state-specific tax advantage, said Elizabeth Alm, a Bellingham, Washington-based portfolio manager with Saturna Capital Corp. who manages an Idaho muni-bond fund. Idaho debt has lost 3.64% year to date, roughly in line with the broader market, according to Bloomberg indexes.
“It’s a very financially strong state, but there is a strong culture of conservative financial management,” Alm said. “To actually get bonds passed is going to be something of a journey.”
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