Middleton and Star residents made their voices clear in November: No new taxes.

Residents voted down a Middleton School District supplemental levy and a fire department levy, keeping a fire station in Star empty and the school district’s budget tight.

November’s failed levies were part of a long string of bond and levy rejections — the district’s eighth consecutive unsuccessful attempt since 2018. Its last successful bond passage was in 2008, after the old Middleton High School burned down in 2007.

“They just feel like they’re being taxed too much,” said Sen. Tammy Nichols, R-Middleton.

The district wants to build a new elementary school to alleviate overcrowding at Middleton Heights and Mill Creek elementary schools.

It also ran a supplemental levy in November, which failed.

The school district’s enrollment boundaries are broader than the Middleton city limits, encompassing residents in Caldwell, Star and unincorporated parts of Canyon County. Nichols said many residents around Middleton live within other taxing districts.

“We pay more taxes here than on the Ada (County) side, as far as property tax goes,” Nichols said. “(Residents within Middleton School District boundaries) could be from 10 to 15 different taxing districts.”

Given the future elementary school’s location, Star mayor Trevor Chadwick said he was more than willing to help superintendent Marc Gee and the Middleton district build a new school.

“We required the developer (CBH) to provide that land to the school district,” Chadwick said of the 11.5 acres developer CBH Homes will donate.

He was happy to support the school district, he said, since they’ve struggled to pass a bond.

“Bonds and levies – people are tired of costs going up in everything. It’s not just (schools), it’s everyday lifestyle, your insurance for your house, the cost of fuel,” said Chadwick.

“Everything just keeps going up, and people are reluctant to add more costs to themselves. You can’t blame them for that.”

Middleton city councilman Tim O’Meara worries some voters are thinking too much for themselves. He won a commissioner seat in the Middleton and Star Fire Districts during the November election.

He acknowledged that while a majority of Middleton voters support levies or bonds, the 67% supermajority required to pass bonds and some levies makes it a tall order.

“We have a large growth of people in our community who have either retired or moved up here from another state where funding for schools is different, and they feel like they shouldn’t have to pay any more taxes than what they’re paying now,” said O’Meara.

His concern is that by rejecting a levy to staff the nearby fire station, Middleton and Star residents’ home insurance could go up if a house burns down and the fire department can’t reach it quickly enough.

He also said “a lot of people think the Legislature isn’t funding schools adequately.”

Nichols disagrees with that notion.

“I hear from people sometimes that the state’s not fully funding school districts, or something along those lines – but that’s not the case, every year the state gives schools more and more money,” Nichols said. “So the question I propose is: how much? How much money should that be?”

For the Middleton School District, the answer is $11.1 million, at least to build a new school and alleviate overcrowding.