GILROY
– A countywide education ballot initiative that would raise $77
million for teacher stipends and improving students’ reading skills
could go to taxpayers this November.
GILROY – A countywide education ballot initiative that would raise $77 million for teacher stipends and improving students’ reading skills could go to taxpayers this November.
But county supervisors – one of two groups that could place the parcel tax on the ballot – postponed voting on whether to support the initiative.
The Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group, an organization of education, business and government leaders, first proposed the county parcel tax to improve public education last year, to mixed support. In recent polls, 70 percent of voters said they’d approve the tax, said Larry Carr, a member of the group’s task force recommending the tax.
“There is urgency legislation before the Senate right now to grant us the authority to do this,” he said.
The bill would let either the county or the county office of education to place the first-of-its-kind countywide tax. The Board of Supervisors was expected to vote Tuesday on whether to support the tax, which could charge between $95 and $195 per parcel, but instead delayed the vote until its June 22 meeting, asking staff to study the issue.
“That’s sort of going to start the whole ball rolling,” Carr said.
At least 90 percent of local funds raised would stay in Gilroy, Carr told trustees June 3.
With approval from two-thirds of voters, Gilroy Unified School District coffers could increase by almost $3 million annually. The money would go toward teacher stipends and reading programs. Senior citizens would be exempt from the tax.
The teacher stipend would be the same across all 32 districts in the county. A parcel tax of $195 would mean a stipend of about $2,000 per teacher, said Trustee Bob Kraemer, who also is involved with the task force.
“We don’t want a district like Palo Alto, with more money, to have an edge to take your teachers away,” said Carr, a Morgan Hill Councilman and former school board member for that city.
For teachers without full credentials, districts would use the stipend money to help them become credentialed.
The remaining funds would be geared toward improving reading, although individual districts would ultimately determine how they would be spent, Carr said.
Ten percent of money raised countywide would be targeted to the lowest performing students. Based on the GUSD’s number of low-performers, it would likely keep as much money as it generates, Kraemer said.
The ballot initiative would include an accountability measure as well, establishing a citizens oversight group.
Also, the tax would be approved for an eight-year period, after which it would go to the voters once again.
Trustee Jim Rogers said that, in general, board members “like the concept, but we also are aware that we were very fortunate to pass the 69 million-dollar bond a year-and-a-half ago.
“And this is another gift of the taxpayer and we know that it won’t be an easy sell.”
The roughly $2.8 million the district stands to gain from the measure is close to the amount it cut from its two-year budget this spring.
Voters were actually polled for tax levels of $95, $145 and $195, Carr said, but support only varied by a few percentage points when the highest amount was used.
“If we continue to grow and if we continue to improve our district, that money coming back in – even directly to teacher stipends and assisting non-credentialed teachers in continuing to work on their credentials and helping low-performing students – that’s what we’re doing,” Rogers said. “It would fit in and help us greatly.”
It will be an “uphill battle” to get the initiative on the November ballot, he said.
The bill must pass by two-thirds in both the Senate and Assembly and be signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
If the supervisors or the county education board back it on the November ballot, two-thirds of voters must approve it to pass.
