School Board to Consider Supporting Local Tax Measure

As school districts struggle with reduced cash flow, the superintendent of Saddleback Valley Unified School District is eyeing a measure that would make it easier for the district to pass a flat tax on local homeowners and businesses.

Clint Harwick, district chief, is asking the SVUSD school board to throw its weight behind a proposed state constitutional amendment that would lower the threshold for passing local parcel taxes from two-thirds of voters to 55 percent, making it easier for districts to get more tax money.

Under the proposed amendment, homeowners and businesses in the district would pay up to $250 per parcel owned, were Saddleback Valley Unified to float and pass a parcel tax with approval from 55 percent of voters.

Supporters call parcel taxes one of the few ways a school district can raise revenue that can be spent according to local priorities, rather than according to state mandate. Statewide, school budgets have shrunk by more than $20 million in three years, according to the California Teachers Association, resulting in larger classes and fewer programs.

Opponents, such as the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, argue that the amendment would wipe out Proposition 13’s two-thirds vote protection for local taxes and unfairly burden property owners.

State Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) is leading the effort to shrink the voter percentage needed to pass a local parcel tax, a flat tax typically determined per lot of land, regardless of market value. It would need to be approved by both the Senate and Assembly before it could be put to a statewide vote.

According to Simitian's office, the legislator has reached out to superintendents and school districts across California, garnering the support of 160 districts to date.

As written, the amendment would cap new parcel taxes approved by a 55 percent vote at $250, and allow districts to exempt senior citizens from the tax.

Harwick is asking the Saddleback Valley Unified school board to vote in favor of supporting the state measure at its Tuesday evening board meeting.

Passage of the amendment “will empower local voters to invest in their schools based on the needs of their communities by requiring a tough, but fair 55 percent vote to pass local parcel taxes, while protecting taxpayers and homeowners with accountability provisions that will ensure that funds generated from parcel taxes are not wasted or mismanaged,” reads the resolution the board is being asked to approve.

The board meeting is scheduled to begin 6:15 p.m. Tuesday in the Education Center Board Room at 25631 Peter A. Hartmann Way in Mission Viejo.

Click here for the full meeting agenda.