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# School district to consider raising taxes
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/school-district-to-consider-raising-taxes/
- Published: 2002-04-15T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:14:20.000Z
- Author: Andrew Fixmer
- Tags: Education, Malibu, #archive-import

*The school district is financially troubled and taxpayers may have to bail it out.*

Facing a $5 million deficit over the next two years, Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District officials will ask the board of education at its April 25 meeting to either make deep cuts in services or increase property taxes by November.

In an April 4 memo from Superintendent John Deasy to school board members, he laid out the three policy proposals but clearly advocated raising taxes and asking the cities of Santa Monica and Malibu for more money.

“I am going to ask the board members to consider a plan to raise taxes so we can keep the programs we have and the services we provide,” Deasy said. “Nobody has told me our students get too much or that we provide too many services.”

Deasy said the school district’s financial oversight committee is working on the exact size of the tax increase and how much more will be needed from the two cities that make up the school district.

Another memo will be released this week outlining in detail each proposal and the exact amount of tax increases that are needed, Deasy said.

Decreases in state funding, costs from new programs and new policy changes — like decreasing the size of the student body — are responsible for the school district’s current financial problems, Deasy said.

He said the school district had been warned by the state years ago that decreases in funding were looming and the school district had been “squeaking by with cuts and Band-Aids for years.”

If the school board disagrees that taxes should be raised, Deasy said the school district would have to “authorize a set of massive and deep programmatic cuts over the next two years and publicly acknowledge little or no room for current and future (union) negotiations.”

Another option calls on making 25 percent of the needed cuts and adding 600 students to the school system above this year’s enrollment figure. The state pays school districts approximately $4,500 per student, so increasing the student body by 600 could bring in an approximately $2.7 million in new state funding.

However, the school district recently enacted policies to restrict the number of non-resident students enrolling in the district because of overcrowded classrooms at the high school and junior high schools. The policy will cut 300-400 students a year and decrease state funding by nearly $1.5 million.

Unless more money starts coming into the school district, Deasy believes decisions will have to be made that will compromise the high quality of education provided to students.

Raising taxes and getting more funds from the cities “will be required to solve the problems and reverse a course of trauma and drama to one of thoughtful student program maintenance and enhancement,” he wrote.

The increased tax revenue would also allow the school district to eliminate fees students currently pay to play sports and participate in extracurricular activities.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 15, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/041502.pdf?ref=smdp.com)