Officials will campaign for parcel tax increase
A cash-strapped Santa Monica-Malibu Unified enacted on Thursday one of its leanest budgets in recent history and approved placing a measure on the November ballot asking residents for a tax increase.
The school board approved a $79.9 million budget, which is the school district’s lowest in three years. Before passing the budget, board members voted to cut an additional $520,000 from its books, bringing the total amount cut this year from its budget to $2,151,601.
Due to a dramatic decrease in state funding, the school district faced a $4.5 million budget deficit this year, and district officials anticipate another $5.7 million budget deficit next year.
The budget cuts would have been much deeper had the City of Santa Monica not donated $1.5 million in onetime aid. Malibu voted not to contribute $250,000 in additional aid the school district had requested.
School officials said they tried to cut in places where it would not directly affect students.
“There’s no loss of programs or instruction but support services are going to be curtailed,” Superintendent John Deasy said. “There will definitely be some loss of service.”
“There’s no loss of programs or instruction but support services are going to be curtailed. There will definitely be some loss of service.” — — JOHN DEASY SMMUSD Superintendent
To get back on its feet financially, the school district is proposing a $300 increase in parcel taxes for a period of 12 years. Parcel taxes are flat fees charged to property owners, which can be passed along to renters of apartments.
School district officials said the average Santa Monica apartment renter would pay an additional $3 a year if the ballot initiative is approved by voters.
The amount would represent a 300 percent increase over the $100 property owners currently pay. There are 32,413 parcels in the two cities, and the increased parcel tax rate would annually give the school district an additional $9.6 million.
Initially the school district was proposing a parcel tax increase of approximately $250, but a poll of prospective voters found residents were willing to approve a $300 increase. The $50 increase will bring in almost $500,000 more annually for the school district.
“The thing that amazed me was there was as much unanimity on issues as I have ever seen,” said Neil Carrey, who led an ad-hoc committee to investigate increasing the district’s parcel tax.
“We had people from every political party and almost every different point of view, and they all came together and saw this as a real need,” he said.
However, the tax would not go into effect until July, 2003. “It becomes critical that the parcel tax is successful,” said Deasy, “or we will face grave reductions in our operations next year.”
Deasy said the school district is planning an ambitious campaign for its parcel tax increase.
“It won’t be an easy sell,” he said. “We have a lot of work ahead of us bringing as much education to the public as possible about this in the coming months.
“We really need the community to help us with this parcel tax,” he added. “It’s just so critical to the health of the school district.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 29, 2002. Read the original PDF.