By JOEL CONNELLY
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
With apologies to Chairman Mao, who wasted China’s economy with The Great Leap Forward, Seattle’s proposed 2011 Families and Education Levy should be dubbed “The Great Leap Upward”.
Mayor Mike McGinn and a levy advisory committee want to boost the levy from $116 million in 2004 — which was itself a 68 percent increase over 1997 — all the way to $231 million.
The voters are being ask to foot the bill for a 99 percent increase in the midst of a deep recession.
A few minutes after laying out the proposal, Mayor McGinn was asked if he is upbeat about the current performance of the Seattle School District. “I don’t think things are working right now,” McGinn replied. (He did not give specifics of what isn’t working.) read more