Spokane voters are being asked to consider a $440 million investment into parks and schools in a collaborative effort between the Spokane Public Schools and the Spokane Parks Department to maximize funding by proposing integrative projects.
Dubbed “Together Spokane,” the collaboration includes a $240 million parks levy and $200 million Spokane Public Schools bond that will be paid for over the next 20 years. These funds look to renovate, build and expand both parks’ and schools’ facilities and services while strengthening inter-agency collaboration.
While the agencies are coming to voters with a collaborative, joint proposal, the levy and bond will appear before voters as two separate items.
On your ballot, the parks levy, labelled Proposition 1 will look like this:
“The City of Spokane adopted Resolution No. 2025-0026 concerning funding for park renovation, improvements and safety citywide. This proposition would upgrade restrooms, playgrounds, sport courts and trailheads and park grounds, add three new parks, increase park rangers & maintenance staff, and protect natural lands.
This proposition would authorize an increase in the regular property tax levy by $0.27 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, for a maximum regular property tax levy rate of $2.59 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, for collection in 2026; set the levy lid limit factor at 3% annually for the years 2027-2031; and use the 2031 levy amount to calculate subsequent levy limits. The property tax levy increase would remain in effect for a period of twenty years. Should this proposition be approved?
Yes or No?”
It requires 50% of ballots cast to approve the levy.
The school bond, also labelled Proposition 1, will look like this:
“The Board of Directors of Spokane School District No 81 adopted Resolution No. 2025-03, concerning school improvements to provide adequate facilities for learning. This proposition would authorize the District to: rebuild Adams and Madison Elementaries; modernize sections of North Central High School and Garry Middle School; construct Trades High School; provide essential capital improvements to 66 schools/facilities (roofing, HVAC, plumbing, disability access, safety security, technology); improve activities/athletics infrastructure for students/community use; issue $200,000,000 of general obligation bonds maturing within 21 years; and levy annual excess property taxes to repay the bonds, all as provided in Resolution No. 2025-03.
Should this proposition be:
Approved or Rejected?”
It requires 60% of ballots cast to approve the bond.
The combined proposal emerged out of multiple failures.
In February of 2024, Spokane Public School District (SPS) went out to voters with a bond proposal, which would have raised funding for a lot of the physical building improvements outlined in the current proposal. That bond needed 60% of the votes to succeed. It didn’t even clear 55%, marking the first time an SPS bond had failed since 1967.
On the Parks side, there was a failure to launch: an original proposal for a levy to support parks, which would’ve raised $225 million over 20 years, was delayed by the Spokane City Council three times — likely because council members were worried voters would not approve both the Community Safety Sales tax on the ballot at the time and a parks levy.
The school bond failure, coupled with the city’s nervousness to go to voters with a new tax, led to the dual proposal, which leaders believe will maximize the impact of tax dollars.
Garrett Jones, director of Parks and Recreation, said the collaboration is a direct result of public feedback.
“The community came out loud and clear, and they wanted government agencies to actually work together, rather than being in their own separate silos, to start really working horizontally on their mission alignments and their goals and find those efficiencies in government,” he said.
Through the collaborative use of funding, SPS Director of Communications Ryan Lancaster said taxpayers will maximize their investments, gaining an additional 30 projects at a lower cost than if the proposals did not merge projects.
What it does
So what will voters actually get? It depends on what exactly passes.
The passage of both propositions would impact each school and park, from minor renovations to sweeping rebuilds and new construction. Among the many proposed uses, the school bond would fund a rebuild of Adams and Madison elementary schools, renovations to North Central High School and Garry and Chase middle schools and the creation of a four-year trades high school.
Proposed uses for the park levy include the creation of three parks in Shiloh Hills, North Indian Trail and Latah/Hangman neighborhoods, park renovations in Minnehaha, Harmon and Grant and improvements in security and infrastructure across all city parks.
If both the levy and the bond pass, voters will see the most positive impact. For example, the school bond includes an expansion of the Dwight Merkel Sports Complex, which will then be maintained in the long term through funding from the parks levy. Other projects that would be funded if both pass include: six outdoor learning centers, an indoor public aquatics center, citywide all-weather lighted fields and more. (The list can be viewed here.)
If either the levy or bond were to fail, collaborative projects such as these would not be possible, though projects independent of funding from both measures would continue as planned.
With the passage of just one, things would become a lot more complicated, as the proposal was designed with collaboration in mind.
A complete list of all the proposed projects, separated by bond and levy, can be found on the Together Spokane website here. If you want to see what could be coming to your neighborhood specifically, if the proposals pass, you can use their interactive map tool here.
What it costs
If you ask SPS — or at least, refer to their mailer — you can get all the school bond projects for just an additional 2 cents to your existing bond bill. Then, the parks levy would be a property tax levy at 27 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, for a total of an additional 29 cents per $1,000. In total, that would be just a $7.25 per month cost, or $87 a year for a property valued at $300,000.
That sounds really good, if it’s true. And it is — but only for 2026.
What mailers and marketing from SPS and the Parks Department have failed to outline is the costs over the lifetime of the bond and the levy, which are significantly more than 29 cents per year. Right now, homeowners pay roughly $1.34 per $1,000 of assessed property value on the existing school bond bills from past voter-approved bonds. As outlined by the SPS mailer, that would increase by just 2 cents to $1.36 in 2026.
In 2027, that number would rise by another 2 cents, up to $1.38. Then, in 2028, it would jump by a whole 12 cents up to $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed value, which is where your bill would stay until 2030.
Despite these numbers, SPS has stuck to the 2 cents line, even going as far as to request a correction on a previous edition of our CIVICS section, which correctly listed the average monthly cost to voters over the lifespan of the bond and levy, instead of using the year when it would cost the least.
On average, the combined proposals would actually cost someone owning a $300,000 home an additional $150 per year on average, not $87, when the lifespan of the taxes is considered.
The proposal is also slightly more expensive than what it would’ve cost voters if SPS and the Parks Department had approached their propositions separately. The bond proposed by SPS in 2024 was a $200 million bond, while the levy the Parks Department was proposing was for $225 million over 20 years. The joint proposal now intends to collect $440 million. However, the joint proposal is more ambitious and encompasses more projects than either lone proposal was planning to undertake on its own, so voters are likely getting more bang for their buck.
What people are saying
Despite the price tag, the joint proposal has bipartisan support. Spokane city council members across the political spectrum — with the exception of Council Member Jonathan Bingle, who was absent for the vote to put the proposition on the ballot and was vocally against the partnership with the schools — voted in favor of the ballot measure.
High-profile politicians on both sides of the political spectrum have voiced their approval for the proposal, including conservative council member and 2026 county auditor candidate Michael Cathcart, Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown and state senator Marcus Riccelli.
The “For” statement for both the Parks levy and the SPS in the Washington State Voter’s Guide was prepared by Republican former mayor David Condon and Democrat former senator Andy Billig. The statement calls the proposal “a powerful example of how public partnerships can create more value and efficiency,” which will “improve every park and every school, in every neighborhood.”
On the “Against” side, frequent testifier at Spokane City Council meetings Dennis Flynn wrote the Parks levy statement, and local engineer Russell Neff wrote the SPS statement.
Flynn wanted to see the Parks plan have a prioritized action plan for the proposed projects, and said city dollars should be spent on other challenges instead of parks. Neff criticized the high cost of the school bond alongside other state and local taxes.
“If this new bond passes, taxes will rise again starting in 2026 and keep climbing every year until at least 2030. These increases might seem small, but they’re piling up — and families are feeling it,” he wrote.
The statements on the Parks levy can be found here, and the SPS bond here.
Jones and Lancaster highlighted the focus on community, stating that the innovative nature of the joint proposal was in response to community feedback and desires, both to get the most out of their tax dollars and to see investments across the city.
“A big part of what makes this historic is trying to accommodate almost a rekindling of engagement in our communities and trying to build infrastructure to accommodate that,” Lancaster said.
“Some of our foundational goals of this initiative is really creating a healthy, active community and really enhancing the identity of neighborhoods,” said Jones. “We really heard from the public [the importance] of the investment in neighborhoods and strengthening our neighborhoods within the City of Spokane, and that vehicle and mechanism is really through our schools, our school yards and our neighborhood parks.”
Editor’s Note: This story has been edited to correct a formatting error and former state senator Andy Billig’s title.
