Last Monday, the Board voted unanimously to place a parcel tax on the November 2008 ballot.
The measure would enhance and extend Measure D, the parcel tax previously approved by voters in June, 2003. The amount of the assessment would increase by $75 per parcel, to about $184 per year, and be levied until such time as the Board determined it was no longer necessary. As with Measure D, senior citizens could apply for an exemption from the tax (Measure D exemptions would be automatically carried forward to apply to the new measure).
This is an important decision for the kids of San Carlos, and for our community. But it’s going to take a lot of work to get the measure approved, because it needs a supermajority (2/3 of the ballots cast) to pass. There will be a need for lots of volunteers, for phone banks, voter registration efforts, etc. If you can spare any time at all, please consider volunteering to help the campaign.
There is also a need to raise money to pay for the campaign itself. By law, public agencies (e.g., school districts) are not allowed to spend public monies advocating for or against ballot measures. Consequently, community members who want to see this measure approved to help improve our K-8 schools need to raise the funds themselves.
That campaign effort is already being organized, but the specific individuals who are going to be handling different aspects of the campaign are not yet defined. Stay tuned for more information (both here and in the press). If you’re ready to commit time or money today, please contact either me (mark@arcabama.com) or Tom Quiggle (tom@quighome.com).
While our community is generally quite supportive of its local schools, we are going to have to work hard to ensure supporters know of the measure and remember to work their way down to the end of the ballot where it will be located (in presidential elections, many voters just vote the “top of the ticket” and stop). We also do not have an imminent fiscal crisis on our hands, as we did in 2002/2003, to galvanize supporters.
But with a bit of work and time I’m confident we can get this approved. I hope you’ll join me and the many other community members who want to see our schools get a more stable source of funding to offset current and future state budget cuts in working to get the measure passed.