Santa Monica city passes sales tax

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The tax money could benefit Santa Monica and Malibu schools. Malibu High School PTSA president says she would like to explore the possibility of proposing a similar sales tax in Malibu.

By Jonathan Friedman / The Malibu Times

Two election results benefited Malibu residents last week, and locals did not even have to cast a ballot. Measure Y, a half-cent sales tax, was approved in Santa Monica by 60 percent of the voters (a simple majority was needed for passage). And Measure YY, which recommends the Santa Monica City Council give half the estimated $12 million in annual revenue to education, was approved by 67 percent of the voters. The tax will go into effect in the spring.

If Santa Monica council members take the residents’ advice and give a portion of the tax revenue money to education-specifically the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District-both Malibu and Santa Monica schools will benefit. Measure A, the failed SMMUSD parcel tax proposal from May had promised $5.7 million. That measure required two-thirds voter approval. Education activists supported Measure Y and encouraged the Santa Monica City Council to place Measure YY on the ballot as an easier alternative to trying another parcel tax.

“We can now breathe a little easier in terms of the budget pains that are confronting us,” said Laurie Lieberman, who was elected to the Board of Education last week, and had introduced the concept of YY to the Santa Monica City Council this summer. “Not that it’s going to be easy, but certainly with the passage of Y and YY, things will be better.”

During the Santa Monica council meeting when YY was approved for the ballot, only the SMMUSD was discussed as a recipient of “education” money. But there has been recent talk that Santa Monica College could also be asking for a portion of the tax revenue. The council could not have specified the money go to the SMMUSD when it placed the measure on the ballot, or else election rules would have forced it to a two-thirds approval threshold.

Education activists are mixed on whether they believe Santa Monica College should be included in the mix. Board of Education member Oscar de la Torre said in an interview last week that he wants the SMMUSD to receive at least 55 percent of the tax revenue.

Wendy Sidley, president of the Malibu High School PTSA, said she was up at 5 a.m. Election Day to drop off door hangers supporting Measures Y and YY. She said she and other Malibu residents joined the campaign despite local voters being ineligible because it could benefit the whole district. She said she would like to see similar measures placed on the Malibu ballot in the near future.

“People are talking about it,” Sidley said. “Many times when I was out talking about Y and YY, people asked, ‘Has Malibu ever thought about doing that?’”

Sidley said she or others involved in local education activism plan to regroup soon following this election season to create a proposal for the Malibu City Council. She said they would first reach out to Laura Rosenthal, the council member most closely associated with education issues.

Rosenthal said on Tuesday that she had heard from some people who were interested in doing something similar to Y and YY in Malibu. She said she would like to hear a formal proposal before publicly commenting on whether she would support such measures.

“I’m glad that Santa Monica passed Y and YY,” Rosenthal said. “I encourage people to shop in Malibu first, but if you don’t find what you need here, go shop in Santa Monica. Also, if you’re in Santa Monica, you should shop there.”

As to whether a tax would pass in Malibu is not certain. Malibu has failed to meet the two-thirds threshold in every SMMUSD parcel tax election since at least 2002. But if Malibu does what Santa Monica did, it would only need a simple majority, and this city has always surpassed that mark on tax proposals.

“I don’t know if it would pass,” Sidley said. “I know we have an anti-tax base here. But the thing that’s great about this is we have so many tourists spending money in Malibu. A lot of the cost would pass along to them.”

The Santa Monica tax does not apply to food store items and prescription medications, as well as other items that do not currently carry taxes.

Sidley continued, “It’s also such a minimal amount, five dollars for every thousand dollars you spend. So it’s not really something you notice.”