The words
”
parcel tax
”
will become more than just board meeting whispers tonight at the
Morgan Hill Unified School District school board study session.
The words “parcel tax” will become more than just board meeting whispers tonight at the Morgan Hill Unified School District school board study session.
Several trustees have said that the board discussion at 6 p.m. tonight will focus on a possible parcel tax for the district, though the presentation will consider ways “to raise additional revenue.”
“There aren’t that many techniques available. A parcel tax is the most common,” said board president Peter Mandel. “The first step to consider is how much would we need to raise to make a difference. Often you can go to a lot of effort to do a parcel tax and the final impact is sometimes less than you hoped.”
Deputy Superintendent Bonnie Tognazzini said in January that MHUSD cannot fund special elections for parcel taxes and the tens of thousands of dollars it would cost would have to come from fundraisers. The board would need to approve resolutions detailing how the money would be spent, organize a committee and rally support from voters.
A possible challenge, said Mandel, is receiving the needed two-thirds approval from Morgan Hill voters. This is why the board has agreed to poll the community before pushing for an election.
“We want to see what the public sentiment is and have that information first,” said trustee Claudia Rossi.
Tonight’s study session to discuss revenue-generating options comes after a $4.5 million deficit in this year’s 2011-12 $70 million budget. Since 2008, MHUSD has reduced spending by $16.4 million.
Other school districts in the Bay Area – Los Altos, Sunnyvale, Cupertino and Los Gatos/Saratoga – have passed parcel tax measures in recent elections.
Mandel said it was California’s state budget deficit of $26.6 billion that brought on the need to have tonight’s study session with open conversation without the constraints of agenda items.
“I think those budget cuts are what’s generating that need (for revenue). Whether a parcel tax is the right thing to do, I’m inclined to think it is,” Mandel said.
Trustee Ron Woolf said depending on state funding is not an option a parcel tax “or something of that nature” will probably be in the works.
“We’ll re-examine the budget, we’ve already done that for a couple of years now to see what we can do,” said Woolf. “We’ll work on class sizes, pick up $5,000 here, $10,000 there.”
Rossi said every little bit counts.
“You can register your Safeway club card to give a portion of your purchases to schools,” she said. Safeway gives 10 percent back to the school the cardholder selects.
Other considerations the board may discuss are partnering with educational services such as Kaplan – for profit test preparatory service – to see if the district could exchange free services for advertisement to students, said Rossi.
The board canceled a previous study session set for June 27 due to the facilitator’s need to attend a funeral on the East Coast.
