By CAROL HOLZGRAFE and LORI STUENKEL
GILROY
– Voters will face another election in just three short months.
While the March 2 presidential primary race will garner most of the
attention, there are local races that Gilroy voters will want to
follow.
Voters will approve – or disapprove – a countywide parcel tax to fund operations at the nine Santa Clara County libraries.
The parcel tax would increase the countywide assessment that operates the Gilroy, Morgan Hill and seven other county libraries, buying books, paying staff, keeping the doors open six (or seven) days a week. The current assessment of $33.66 per parcel expires in 2005.
Voters will be asked to approve $42 per parcel for seven years. The current $33.66 assessment paid 40 percent of library operating costs when it was approved in 1995 and now covers only 24 percent of costs, library officials say.
If the parcel tax fails, the Joint Powers Authority, which operates the Santa Clara County Library System, will lose an estimated $1 million from its operating funds. This tax needs approval from two-thirds of voters to pass.
Gavilan Community College District will ask voters to authorize the sale of $108 million in bonds to cover renovation of the aging campus in Gilroy, to upgrade library and student services center, provide a permanent San Benito County facility and buy land for a permanent Morgan Hill facility.
If passed by a 55 percent majority, the bond would add $15 per $100,000 of assessed value to homeowners’ property tax bills in the South Valley and San Benito County.
Two statewide measures are also on the ballot.
Proposition 55 would allow the state to sell $12.3 billion in bonds to pay for school and university construction and renovation projects; it was added to the ballot by the Legislature.
Proposition 56 is an initiative that would allow lawmakers to pass budgets with 55 percent majorities instead of the current two-third requirement. Tax increases needed to balance the budget could also be passed by the same 55 percent margin.
Voters may not find a bond issue authorizing the state government to borrow $15 billion to cover part of the huge state deficit since the Legislature and the governor could not reach agreement by last Friday’s deadline. The issue will likely appear in November.
Simon Salinas, congressional representative for the 28th District, which includes Gilroy, will run for re-election next year. The two-term Democratic Assemblyman will be will be unchallenged in the March primary, but Republican Bob Perkins, farm bureau manager, will vie for the seat in the November general election.
The 15th State Senate District (Morgan Hill, San Martin and Gilroy, all of San Benito, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties) has long been represented by Bruce McPherson, R-Santa Cruz, who is not running again because he is “termed out.”
Margaret A. Pinard, San Luis Obispo County supervisor, is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination for McPherson’s seat, Ryen Brook Madsen for the Green Party’s. Assemblyman Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, who was first elected to the Assembly in November 2000 and is a member of an agri-business family, will seek the Republican nomination.
Winner of the November 2004 election will replace McPherson in the state Senate.
Incumbent Senator Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, is not being challenged by another Democrat. Republicans Tony Casey and Bill Quraishi, Don James Grundman of the American Independent Party, James P. Gray and Gail Lightfoot, Libertarian and Marsha J. Feinland, Peace and Freedom are running for their parties’ nominations to challenge Boxer.
Santa Clara County Open Space Authority district one representative Alex Kennett, the Morgan Hill resident and incumbent, is running unopposed. In the race for the Open Space Authority’s district 3 representative, Incumbent Clysta Seney will be challenged by county Planning Commission Chairman Sequoia Hall.
No Gilroy school board seats are on the March ballot, although the three held by Trustees John Gurich, Bob Kraemer and Jaime Rosso will be up for election in November. Those positions are nonpartisan.
City Council seats will not be on next year’s ballot. The next city election will take place in 2005.
Council and school board terms are for four years.
Three Gavilan Community College trustees are up for re-election in November 2004. Leonard Washington (a Morgan Hill seat), Mark Dover (a Gilroy seat) and Tom Breen (a San Benito County seat) are all eligible to run again. Voters throughout the college district will determine winners of any trustee races.
The last day to register to vote in the primary is Feb. 17.
Registration can be handled online at www.sccvote.gov or by calling the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters at 299-8683. Registration forms will be available at public libraries, City Hall and elsewhere around town.
