On Tuesday, voters in the Kentfield School District will decide whether to extend their existing parcel tax. If Measure A passes, the current $1,143 per parcel tax will increase to $1,498 for each residential lot plus an annual 3 percent inflator.
A two-thirds super-majority is required to win in the all-mail balloting.
On May 8, voters in North San Rafael’s Dixie School District will vote by mail on Measure B to continue its $352 parcel tax and raise it by $118 to $480, plus a 3 percent inflator.
Marin is historically generous in approving most school-related parcel taxes and improvement bonds. At some point soon, a limit will be reached.
All Marin public school trustees are in a tough spot. They can either do what Novato Unified is considering: cutting staff, or follow Kentfield’s lead by raising taxes.
The cause for either of these two undesirable results is undisputed. CalSTRS, the California State Teachers Retirement System, is dangerously underfunded.
In 2014, at the urging of CalSTRS and teachers unions, Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation designating a long-term funding plan to rescue teachers’ pensions.
As the website CALmatters.org reports, in 2014 “CalSTRS was only 67 percent funded and would have run out of money in 33 years. The schedule for paying down debt calls for school districts to ramp up (pension) contributions from 8.25 percent of their budgets in 2013 to 19.1 percent in 2020. The agreement also raised teacher and state contribution rates, but only slightly.”
Unlike some other public employees, who seemingly won the pension lottery, teacher retirement pay is reasonable. The average life-time pension is $53,700 at age 63 after 25.6 years of work.
Reasonableness isn’t the issue. For decades CalSTRS didn’t require the state, school districts or teachers to put enough cash away to properly fund the plan.
The legislation was prudent though it should’ve included larger teacher contributions and more money from a Legislature complicit in allowing over-promised teachers’ pensions to get out of hand.
Under the new formula, CalSTRS will pay off its unfunded liability by 2045. That’s good news for our children, but someone has to pay the piper today to come up with billions to fill the gap.
CALmatters reports: “Nearly 40 percent of the increase in school budgets will be absorbed by higher pension costs.” Districts claiming parcel tax money isn’t going to fund pensions are wrong. Money is fungible.
The result in Kentfield is a bitter sociological conundrum.
Well-educated parents understand a first-rate education is the key for their children’s success. Highly-rated Bacich Elementary and Kent Middle schools are magnets for high-earning millennial families willing to pay a house-price premium to live in the Kentfield School District. They demand public schools as good as any private school. A $1,498 annual parcel tax is a small price to pay for excellence for their kids. Teacher layoffs are off the table.
Contrast this with long-time residents blessed to live in Kentfield, but who purchased their homes decades ago when middle-class folks could afford to live there.
They are house-rich but cash-strapped. They often hail from slightly less well-educated and somewhat less-prosperous backgrounds than new arrivals. A $1,498 supplemental tax on top of paying Kentfield’s Measure D school bonds and basic property taxes stretches their fixed-income budgets.
Sure, Bacich’s reputation increases their property’s value, but that only benefits their heirs.
The trick in Kentfield, San Rafael and elsewhere is school trustees recognizing they have two equally valid constituencies with very different needs. Parents and teachers who want more (and certainly not less) versus older homeowners and single people who can‘t afford it all.
Unless their concerns are balanced, sooner rather than later a school tax is going to lose.
Columnist Dick Spotswood of Mill Valley writes about local issues on Sundays and Wednesdays in the IJ. Email him at spotswood@comcast.net.
