The tax would be temporary and used to offset the school district’s budget crisis caused by the state’s fiscal problems.
By Olivia Damavandi / Staff Writer
Malibu residents may be hit with another parcel tax if a citizens committee established by the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s Board of Education decides one is needed to offset the district’s budget crisis, and voters approve it on a future ballot.
The Board of Education met last week and voted to establish the committee to examine the feasibility of a second “emergency and temporary” parcel tax to offset a deficit caused by the state budget crisis.
The state’s economic crisis has also put Malibu’s quest to develop its own school district on hold.
“We just want to find out first if it would pencil out financially,” resident Laura Rosenthal, whose children attend Malibu High School, said Monday in a telephone interview. “We need signatures to give to Los Angeles County but that effort has stalled because of the economic crisis. Parents are busy with their jobs and kids.”
Meanwhile, the citizens committee, which has not yet chosen members, will work with a polling firm to craft questions for community input, delineate the steps necessary to place a parcel tax on a future ballot or special election, and examine the possibility of a capital facilities bond measure approved in 2007. The results are expected to be discussed at a board meeting no later than Dec. 10.
Members of the public who would like to serve on the committee must by Aug. 11 complete an application, which can be found online at smmusd.org.
An existing parcel tax collects an annual $364 per parcel. The longevity and amount of the proposed tax is currently unknown, but Jan Maez, SMMUSD chief financial officer, estimates it will be less expensive than the prior taxes and last three to five years.
It is expected that the proposed parcel tax, like the current one, will exempt senior citizens, “but anything could happen,” Maez said.
“We’re [financially] OK for the next school year but we are using up reserves at a very fast pace,” Maez said.
“If we are not able to change our revenue at all for the 2010-2011 school year, we will have to cut nearly $8 million of our budget,” Maez continued. “That’s twice as much as we cut this year. This parcel tax will certainly not raise these types of funds but, if passed, help lessen the impact of cuts we need to make.”
Due to a $5.3 billion statewide reduction in education funding, the SMMUSD stands to lose several million in state dollars this fiscal school year and next as well. This places the district at risk of being $10 million “in the hole,” Maez said, by 2010, and possibly reaching a deficit of $22 million by 2011, absent further reductions.
Though the implementation of an emergency and temporary parcel tax was unanimously supported, board member Jose Escarce urged others not to rely on it.
“One of the problems [with parcel taxes] is that you incorporate them in your cost structure and then you become dependent on them,” Escarce said at the meeting. “I think we want to ensure as best we can that the voters get the message, but that we as a district also get the message that any parcel tax we put out is an emergency measure.”
The district is investigating other sources of potential revenue, such as expanding the uses of its facilities and renting them. Further savings might come from even larger school class sizes than originally proposed, staff furloughs, and a reduction of employee benefits and student programs.
Combining smaller schools in the district with declining enrollment, such as the three elementary schools in Malibu, is also being considered.