History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
School districts look to parcel taxes for aid
- 04-29-2011
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By Jennifer Gollan/New York Times
Bay Area school districts, facing increasingly severe budget problems, are turning en masse to one of the few revenue-raising tools at their disposal: the parcel tax. These levies, a form of property tax, require approval by two-thirds of district voters, and they will be on the ballot in 11 different Bay Area school districts in a mail-in election next week. The parcel tax votes will test how strongly people feel about preventing teacher layoffs and other cutbacks. Recent polls show that Californians are willing to pay higher taxes to finance education, but tax increases of any kind are often a tough sell on Election Day. Parcel taxes are typically temporary measures that impose a flat tax on all individual properties, though in some cases there is an additional fee based on the size of the property. The votes will also be a measure of the effectiveness of a growing industry of political consultants who specialize in selling such parcel taxes to the voters. (more...)
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