Make It Easier for Public School Districts to Raise Funds

Article Source: CA State Senator Jerry Hill

7 State Lawmakers Want to Make It Easier for California’s Public School Districts to Raise Funds for Education

Proposed State Constitutional Amendment Would Lower the Threshold for Local Voter Approval of School Parcel Taxes to a 55 Percent Supermajority


SACRAMENTO – State Senators Jerry Hill and Ben Allen, joined by Assemblymembers Marc Berman and Kevin Mullin with Senators Anthony Portantino, Nancy Skinner and Scott Wiener, introduced legislation today to ask California voters to amend the state constitution and make it easier for school districts to pass local school parcel taxes.

Senate Constitutional Amendment 5 seeks to lower the supermajority required for passage of local school parcel taxes from a two-thirds vote of approval to a 55-percent vote of approval. SCA 5 would also set accountability requirements for school parcel taxes.

“Despite significant increases in state funding for schools in recent years, districts are struggling to maintain quality educational services and programs amid escalating costs and declining enrollment,” said state Senator Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. “Teacher layoffs or furloughs and cut programs are among the results.”

The lawmakers proposing SCA 5 say that before fiscal year 2018-19 ends, an estimated third of the state’s public school districts will have a budget deficit. An estimated two-thirds of the districts are expected to have a budget deficit before the end of the 2019-20 fiscal year.

“Parcel taxes are one of the few means school districts have to supplement their funding,” Senator Hill said. “Yet the current requirement for a two-thirds supermajority vote to pass school parcel taxes has enabled a minority of voters to block efforts to provide vital local education funding. SCA 5 retains the requirement for supermajority approval of local school parcel taxes, but the legislation changes the supermajority threshold to a more realistic percentage.”

More than 80 percent of the 26 local school parcel tax measures that failed in California from 2012 to 2017 would have passed if a supermajority vote of 55 percent was required for approval, instead of a two-thirds vote.

“This is all about the right of local voters in a local community to make the decision that fits best for their community,” said Senator Allen, D-Santa Monica, the joint author of SCA 5. “If folks want to invest more in schools and provide students with enhanced educational resources such as librarians, counselors, music, art, sports, and more, they should be able to do so. It is not right or fair that a small minority of the population can block the will of the majority, as is the case under the current system. The two-thirds vote requirement is anti-democratic and should be done away with, especially for schools.”

Senator Allen introduced a similar constitutional amendment last year, but the proposal did not survive the legislative process.

In addition to easing the supermajority threshold, SCA 5 also requires that a proposition for a local school district parcel tax meet several conditions before being placed on the ballot for district voters:
· The proposition must be approved by a majority vote of the school district governing board’s members.
· The proposition must list the specific purposes and programs to be funded by the school parcel tax.
· The measure must also include a requirement that the proceeds generated are used only for what is specified by the proposition.
· To ensure compliance, the proposition must require the school district governing board to conduct an annual independent financial audit of the amount of parcel tax proceeds collected, the amount expended, and the purposes and programs that were funded.

Speaking in support of SCA 5, Emma Turner, president of the California School Boards Association said: “A 55-percent threshold for parcel tax passage represents a more equitable approach to supplemental funding for schools. The current two-thirds standard hinders many middle- and low-income districts from improving school conditions and student outcomes. In a state with woefully inadequate support of public schools – currently we’re ranked 41st nationally in per-student funding – it makes no sense to place arbitrary restrictions on local communities seeking to provide needed resources for their students. Reducing the parcel tax threshold to 55 percent dramatically increases the likelihood that less affluent districts and districts with high proportions of African American and Latino students will pass a parcel tax. It nearly doubles the prospects of parcel tax passage among all districts statewide. Given this, a constitutional amendment lowering the parcel tax threshold represents a victory for equity and for California’s 6.2 million students.”

To be eligible for the state ballot, SCA 5 must pass each house of the Legislature with a two-thirds vote. The governor’s signature on the legislation is not required. If passed by the Legislature, the measure could reach the state ballot as early as 2020. It would need a simple majority vote to win.

Passage of a ballot measure would align the voter approval threshold for local school parcel taxes with that for local school bond measures. California voters approved Proposition 39 in 2000 to require a 55 percent majority vote for local school bond measures to pass.

In addition to Senators Hill and Allen introducing SCA 5 as joint authors, Assemblymembers Berman, D-Palo Alto, and Mullin, D-South San Francisco, are principal co-authors, and Senators Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge, Skinner, D-Berkeley, and Wiener, D-San Francisco, are co-authors.

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More Resources:
SCA 5 will be posted online at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/ within 24 hours.

Here is the text of SCA as introduced:
https://sd13.senate.ca.gov/sites/sd13.senate.ca.gov/files/sca5_text.pdf

Attempted School Parcel Tax Measures, 2012-2017
https://sd13.senate.ca.gov/sites/sd13.senate.ca.gov/files/data_re_2012-17_schoolparceltaxattempts.pdf

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Robert Riechel

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Photo Credit: San Bruno CA Patch Archives

Source Credit: CA State Senator Jerry Hill

Web Site: http://sd13.senate.ca.gov/

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