For those unaccustomed or unwilling to read the "supermajority" fine print, let me help.

Our state constitution currently requires a 60 percent "yes" vote from "40 percent of the number of voters who voted in the preceding general election" in the relevant school district, in order to pass an excess levy.

That's (.60 x .40) = 24 percent "yes" votes. Our constitution thus permits 24 percent of voters to successfully vote to tax the remaining 76 percent.

Eliminating the existing "24 percent" superminority provision would produce an even laxer tax equation. Let us predict a 39 percent voter turnout. Let us pass an excess levy with a 50.01 percent "yes" vote. That means (.5001 x .39) =

19.5 percent of registered voters, i.e., fewer than one in five, just voted to increase everyone's taxes.

As is any entity of government, schools, too, are a bottomless pit when it concerns dollars, our dollars.

We should not encourage the attitude that taxpayers have bottomless pockets.

To keep the enlightened, but mis-named, "supermajority," reject "Engrossed HJR 4204."

J.W. Leonard

West Seattle Junction