With major staff reductions and cuts in the offing, local school districts have been hoping legislators in Olympia can provide them a way out.

Both Democrats and Republicans are using a recent King County Superior Court decision as a catalyst to take action. Judge John Erlick ruled Feb. 4 that the state was underfunding basic education — a constitutional mandate — and directed the state to fully and reliably provide for those needs.

But the difference in interpretation has produced three different approaches on how to fund schools by using levies.

While the legislation offers some hope, none guarantees that no cuts will be needed next school year.

“It’s completely up in the air right now,” said Issaquah School District (ISD) spokesperson Sara Niegowski. “But there’s no way we’ll avoid significant cuts.”

The Lake Washington School District (LWSD) faces cuts of $3.6 to $8.2 million and the Issaquah School District faces cuts of $2.7 to $6.4 million, depending on the Legislature’s final budget.

House Bill 2670 is one bill related to school funding that has the best chance of passing in to law. The proposal would restore the levy base for Maintenance and Operations levies for all school districts to 2009-10 school-year levels, before the anticipated cuts this year take effect.

(Under current system, how much a school district can collect in levies is directly related too their base level of funding from the state government.)

For the ISD, that will preserve $1-$1.6 million in levy capacity for the next year.

LWSD spokesperson Kathryn Reith said the number is even higher for its budget, but that is cold comfort compared to proposed cuts by the governor and legislators.

“That’s a lot of money, and we’re not very happy,” she said.

According to the LWSD, the cost of the M&O levy, with the restored base, to the average homeowner (with an assessed home value of $505,000) would be $657 per year.

Local Rep. Glenn Anderson, R-Fall City, said he voted for the levy restoration as a temporary fix, but supported suspending Initiative 728 and Initiative 732 funding, which allowed school districts to pay for more teachers to reduce class sizes and teacher’s pay raises.

“The state continues to not provide for basic education,” he said. “We don’t want to have such a drastic roll-back… (but) all the school districts will have reductions.”

Levy restoration bill HB 2670 had attracted bipartisan support in the House and was introduced to the floor of the State Senate on March 1, where it now awaits a second reading. A vote will follow a third reading.

The bill Reith and Niegowski are hoping will pass is House Bill 2893, which would not only preserve the levy base, but alter school levy provisions to allow school districts to raise their M&O levy authority by four percent.

The ISD and LWSD levy limit would rise to 28.89 percent. While it would cost tax payers more money, the rise would be off-set by falling bond payments.

The LWSD expects to raise an additional $7-$7.6 million this way, while Issaquah estimates it could raise an additional $3.15 million for the life of the levy, starting in 2011 — roughly matching the amount of proposed cuts.

The levy lid lift bill is also the method preferred by the Washington Education Association to solve the school funding crisis.

Neva Luke, President of the local Issaquah Education Association teacher’s union, said she supported the higher limit, which was authorized by voters in February when they approved levy funding amounts higher than authorized by the state levy lid.

“We really do need the ability to collect that,” she said. “The state is cutting what they’re giving us.”

However, the bill attracted little support from State House Republicans, passing 55-41 on Feb. 13. Local Reps. Anderson and Jay Rodne, R-Snoqualmie, voted against it.

“School districts are not supposed to use M&O levies for basic education,” Anderson said. “A levy lid lift goes in contravention to the (King COunty Superior) court’s decision.”

The bill awaits a vote in the Senate Ways and Means committee.

In contrast to the previous two school levy bills offered by Puget Sound Democrats, the third option by Republican legislators is perhaps broadest in scope but also the least likely to pass. Introduced in late February by Sen. Joe Zarelli and co-sponsored by local Sen. Cheryl Pflug, R-Maple Valley, Senate Bill 6858 proposes shifting the ability to raise taxes from local districts to the state, and reducing the amount school districts can raise through levies.

Specifically, levy lids statewide would be lowered to 12 percent, plus the additional increased limit allowed to property-rich districts such as Issaquah, Mercer Island and Bellevue. To make up the difference in funding, the state would then be granted the ability to raise an additional 88 cents of funding per $1,000 in assessed value, eventually raising $828 million a year statewide.

“First, the court has found that the state underfunds basic education by 800 million dollars a year,” Pflug said in a prepared press statement. “And, second, property wealthy areas, such as downtown Seattle, are contributing far less than most other areas. Requiring a uniform tax rate across the state creates a fairer and more stable funding source for K-12 education.”

The bill would also offer a “hold harmless” sweetener that promised to preserve state and local levy funding steady at 2010 levels, but offered few specifics on how or where that money would be found.

Asked how the Republican proposal would affect local school districts in Issaquah and Sammamish, officials were unsure of the impacts but said because the districts are often considered “property rich,” they would likely see less funding through the changed levy formula.

Increased state revenues would be used to back the Quality Education Council’s recommendations on school funding. The bill would “hold harmless” all school districts, which means no district would receive less revenue that it did the year before.

“Just about the only for sure impact from the bill is that we’d lose $14.6 million in M&O levy revenue,” said Issaquah’s Niegowski. “There is not a lot of specific information about how the state’s newly acquired dollars will be distributed to schools… (under that proposal) people in areas with higher property values or a bigger commercial base will begin to send a higher percentage of their school dollars to areas with lower property values.”

Several phone calls and emails to Sen. Pflug and Rep. Rodne about the proposed legislation went unreturned.

The current legislative session is scheduled to end March 11.