Parcel tax will generate about $6.5 million a year
After two days of nervous anticipation, school supporters on Thursday celebrated a victory.
Measure S, which was put in front of voters on Tuesday, passed by a slim margin of 169 votes, garnering 67.6 percent of the 17,965 total ballots.
The measure, which needed two-thirds of the vote to be approved, will generate about $6.5 million annually for the next six years by levying a flat $225 parcel tax on all 32,400-plus parcels in Santa Monica and Malibu.
More than 1,000 last-minute ballots were counted over the past 48 hours after Tuesday’s count put Measure S just 17 votes ahead.
“It was very tense,” Superintendent John Deasy said on Thursday afternoon, shortly after the final tally was announced. “I feel a tremendous sense of relief and I feel really pleased.”
Deasy was among a handful of school officials and Measure S campaigners who spent the day at the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder’s office in Norwalk, where the ballots were counted.
Workers there tallied the votes, produced a printout of the results and walked it over to the group, which observed the entire process through a glass window.
746,“It’s a win and that’s all that matters,” said Harry Keiley, president of the local teacher union. “I just want to communicate heartfelt gratitude to anyone who has given an ounce of energy or a second of time... each and every one of them has helped to change a teacher’s job and do what’s right for children in our schools.”
“It’s a win and that’s all that matters.” — — HARRY KEILEY President, Classroom Teacher’s Association
In the meantime, Mat Millen, who heads Citizens Against Unfair Taxes, the main group that opposed the campaign, said he would probably not call for a recount.
The campaign for Measure S began after the November defeat of Measure EE, which proposed a gradual increasing parcel tax that would have capped at $360 per parcel in 2006.
When Measure EE attracted only 61.2 percent of the vote, school supporters reassessed their approach and returned to voters with Measure S in a special election.
The new, less expensive tax provides an exemption for senior citizen homeowners but does not keep landlords from passing the tax on to tenants.
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District is facing a $13.7 million shortfall in state funding for next year. Now that the Measure S funding is secure, officials plan to rehire many of the 200-plus workers who were laid off in March.
The positions to be brought back are: 21 elementary teachers, two elementary assistant principals, one elementary principal, 20 middle school teachers, 25 high school teachers, two nurses, more than six elementary music teachers, five music aides and accompanists, one fine arts coordinator, four groundskeepers, four administrative assistants, two fiscal service workers, two personnel positions, one career center specialist and five elementary librarians.
A similar parcel tax school measure passed in Palos Verdes Tuesday with 73 percent of the vote and another parcel tax was defeated in Manhattan Beach after it garnered only 58 percent of the vote.
Supporters spent more than $200,000 on the Measure S campaign, which included contacting more than 30,000 residents by mailers, phone banking and canvassing local neighborhoods. They targeted their campaign to turn out the maximum amount of yes votes by going first to regular voters, second to Democrats and, third, to the parents of children in local schools.
They also hired two experienced campaign consultants, Barbara Grover to coordinate the mailers and overall strategy, and Sue Burnside to run the field work. Former school board president Pam Brady manned the campaign office.
The “No on S” group raised about $7,000 and spent the money on a couple hundred lawn signs and a single mailer. Millen said the showing against the measure was particularly strong for a special election.
School supporters are expected to converge on City Hall June 17 to ask the city to give more money to the district. Last year, city officials gave an additional $1.5 million above their usual $3 million. This year, the city is facing a budget crisis of its own but many council members have said they still hope to contribute more.
But for now, supporters are still absorbing their latest victory.
“I am so incredibly happy right now,” said Staci Erlandson, a fifth-grade teacher at Juan Cabrillo Elementary school in Malibu who would have been laid off if Measure S had failed. “I feel relieved. I feel like my prayers are answered.”
“I am so incredibly happy right now. I feel relieved. I feel like my prayers are answered.” — — STACI ERLANDSON Fifth grade teacher Juan Cabrillo Elementary school
Harry Keiley
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 6, 2003. Read the original PDF.