Leaders of a Marin taxpayers group and one of the county’s largest school districts squared off Wednesday on how to avoid program and service cuts while keeping parcel taxes under control and surviving a rising pension cost tsunami.
“We have here ‘Sophie’s Choice,’” said Mimi Willard, a founder of the grassroots Coalition of Sensible Taxpayers. “Are we going to cut services or raise taxes and fees?”
Leslie Harlander, board president of Tamalpais Union High School District, said a district fiscal advisory committee is looking at a range of program and staff cuts and consolidations — such as having a principal oversee two high schools instead of one. On March 13, the Tam district’s board of trustees voted to issue four preliminary layoff notices to three librarians and one wellness center director — but those were not final and could be rescinded later on as per the committee’s recommendations.
“Our district revenue is not keeping pace with expenses,” said Harlander, pointing to a triple-whammy of increasing enrollment, slowing property tax revenue and rising pension costs.
Willard and Harlander made their comments before about 60 people at the monthly Marin Coalition luncheon at The Club at McInnis Park golf center in San Rafael.
The event, “Marin’s Dilemma — Service Cuts or Tax Hikes?,” produced few answers but did raise a lot of questions.
Chief among them was the methods used in the upcoming Measure B parcel tax on the May 8 mail-in ballot in the Dixie School District in San Rafael.
Willard and other COST members say a per-square-footage tax would be more fair in Dixie than a flat rate parcel tax if the district gets a lot of new apartments as expected. That’s because the apartment complexes would pay for only one parcel tax per lot, but each lot could include dozens of apartments. COST members say the per-square-foot tax is not “illegal,” as the Measure B proponents claim, and is already in use in several East Bay school districts.
But Dixie Superintendent Jason Yamashiro disputed that assertion in an email Wednesday.
“Parcel tax measures need to be applied uniformly across all properties,” Yamashiro said. “Parcel tax measures that have different rates based on square footage have been challenged in court.
“Alameda Unified has been tied up in legal battles for years because of the structure of the parcel tax,” he added. “Why would we subject our schools to potential litigation and jeopardize essential funding for our schools? Instead, Measure B is applied uniformly to all parcels and is consistent with what our community has supported for almost 30 years.”
Pension costs
Willard, however, said the ballot language on Measure B is written to downplay the full amount of the proposed increase and to deny any of the money would be used to cover increased teacher pension costs.
She said Measure B proponents also focus on senior citizens, who are eligible for exemptions, but who can still vote in favor of the tax even though they don’t have to pay for it.
“Here’s a myth-buster: not everyone in Marin can afford to pay more taxes,” said Willard, who lives in Kentfield but who is working with Dixie district residents to oppose Measure B. “Next year, my own parcel taxes will be over $4,000, not including any school bond items.”
She said she researched the three East Bay districts that have implemented per-square-footage taxes — Alameda, Berkeley and West Contra Costa County. Of those, only Alameda has been challenged in court because that district put a cap of $7,999 on the tax and so made it non-uniform.
“I don’t hold myself out as an attorney — I’m not,” Willard said after the luncheon. “But I think our districts need to be looking at this. Maybe there’s some responsibility to their taxpayers.”
Willard said COST also opposes special mail-in elections, where proponents can “select” voters because there is only one item on the ballot. Such special elections can also give rise to what Willard called “ballot stalking,” where proponents hire workers to obtain lists from the Marin County Elections Department about which voters have not yet sent in their mail-in ballots, and then the workers send those voters extra mailers, “or they even knock on their doors,” Willard said.
Ballot language
Nicki Mullen, co-chair of the ForDixieStudents.org campaign in favor of Measure B, disputed Willard’s remarks.
“Mimi is one person who lives in Kentfield — she is not an attorney or legal expert,” Mullen said in an email. “I would be very open to working with anyone from our community in a positive manner to improve our schools, but we are not going to take unnecessary risks with our children’s education.
“Here in San Rafael, we know that Measure B is needed,” Mullen said. “Over 400 people have put up YES on B yard signs in their homes and hundreds have volunteered their time to make sure this measure passes for our kids.”
As to ballot language, Mullen added: “We are just trying to make sure people understand what a parcel tax is and what it does,” she said. “If someone is anti-tax, I can see how they would think we were trying to make it sound better. I’m simply trying to help people understand it.”
Attorney David Heller, president of the Marin County Board of Education, said voters should approve Measure B.
“Voter approval of this parcel tax is essential for the financial stability of the Dixie School District. Without the parcel tax revenues there will be substantial staff cuts resulting in program cuts and larger class sizes. I urge voters to approve the parcel tax.”
Tam district tax
Meanwhile, Harlander said the Tam district officials are considering other ways to cut costs and even lobby for pension cost reductions. Pension costs are rising from 8 percent of the district budget in 2014 to 19 percent by 2020-21. The district is planning to ask for voters’ approval of a parcel tax measure this November.
Jody Morales, a leader of the local group Citizens for Sustainable Pension Plans, urged Harlander to push Tam district to get involved at the state level in pension reform.
“We need to allow the money to go to schools and student programs (as opposed to pension payments),” Morales said. “We don’t want taxpayers to be taxed out.”
Harlander also said the district is looking to join with other school groups to reduce costs for special education, which is mandated by the state but under-funded or unfunded.
