Struggling with state allocations funding public schools, the
Hollister School District is discussing asking the people of
Hollister to help the district’s budget dilemmas with a parcel
tax.
Hollister – Struggling with state allocations funding public schools, the Hollister School District is discussing asking the people of Hollister to help the district’s budget dilemmas with a parcel tax.
It’s a discussion occurring in school districts across the state as numerous public schools endure dwindling state support from the $36.5 billion state education budget educators say falls $2 billion short of what is needed. California Superintendent of Public Schools Jack O’Connell said he will help schools find funding by campaigning to reduce the legal threshold necessary to pass parcel taxes from two-thirds to just 55 percent during his State of Education address Monday.
Although no serious plans about the parcel tax have been created, some board members have said they would support it in a special election.
“We are very aggressively looking at the information regarding the parcel tax,” said Margie Barrios, the president of the board. “We have several committees we have established and they will be looking at ways of bringing revenue into the Hollister School District.”
A parcel tax is a flat fee levied on property owners that would raise money for school programs, supplies and teacher salaries. It has already been implemented in about two dozen school districts around California, like Orinda Union and San Ramon Valley districts in the East Bay and Mountain View-Wishman School District. Hollister School District hasn’t decided if they will pursue the parcel tax yet and did not know how much money they would seek from taxpayers.
The tax would apply to all property owners under the age of 65 and could be voted on in a special election within 90 days of approval by the board.
The tax is a popular option for school districts who have used it for everything from art and science programs to computer lab equipment and teacher salaries. However, the districts that have passed it tend to be in wealthier neighborhoods where residents could afford the additional tax, said Gerry Shelton, chief financial officer at the California Department of Education.
“The two thirds approval to pass it is a pretty tough standard and that is why it has ended up in wealthier and more liberal communities,” he said.
But if O’Connell’s proposal to reduce the threshold becomes law, it will mean a higher chance of success for the tax in San Benito County.
The parcel tax is a logical option for HSD, which has announced that it is facing a budget deficit for the next three years. Several days ago the school board reached a decision to transfer $600,000 from its reserves into the general fund in order to not make cuts in the middle of the school year, but must still deal with deficits in 2005-06 and 2006-07. No new student enrollment – a typical source of revenue for districts – is expected at the district, the largest in San Benito County. The district also cut $2 million from its budget last summer, which increased class sizes in Kindergarten and fourth through eighth grades.
Randoll Phelps, elected to the HSD board last November, said he supported the idea of a parcel tax, although cautioned that focus groups would have to be conducted and more research done about local parcel tax successes before the measure went before the voters.
“The thought behind it is to figure out what the state would give us and what it would cost to educate kids in our district … and then take the difference to the voters,” he said.
Phelps supports lowering the necessary threshold for approval of a parcel tax because he says “we know we’re not going to receive this money from the state.”
Karina Ioffee covers education for the Free Lance. Reach her at (831)637-5566 ext. 335 or [email protected]
