Gilroy
– School board member David McRae is asking local residents to
consider adopting a parcel tax for educational improvements next
election.
Voters in the Palo Alto Unified School District approved a
parcel tax last week, sparking McRae to question whether the
difference between this community and Gilroy is not wealth, but
will.
Gilroy – School board member David McRae is asking local residents to consider adopting a parcel tax for educational improvements next election.
Voters in the Palo Alto Unified School District approved a parcel tax last week, sparking McRae to question whether the difference between this community and Gilroy is not wealth, but will.
“It seems like a lot of people are just pointing at the administration and the school board saying, ‘What are you doing to improve?'” McRae said. “Part of it is, when you’re a low budget team, it’s hard to compete.”
In a letter to the Dispatch June 10, McRae called upon Gilroy residents to adopt a $350 per parcel tax to improve schools in the district.
A parcel tax is a flat tax rendered by upon all property owned, regardless of its assessed value, for a fixed period of time. It is an additional method of raising money for education and goes into a school district’s general fund where it can be used for school supplies, programs and teacher salaries.
A $493 parcel tax was adopted in Palo Alto, which gathered more than 73 percent of the vote – a two thirds majority is required to pass. Previously, the city had a $293 per parcel tax.
Currently, Gilroy does not have a parcel tax, and McRae is not concerned with the $350 figure he proposed.
“It’s just a number I threw out,” he said. “What I want people to do is start talking about it.”
However, using 2000 census data, a theoretical $350 parcel tax would increase revenue for the district more than $2.5 million.
Gilroy Unified School District board member Jaime Rosso does not feel a parcel tax is the way to go.
“I think it would be a little over the top,” he said of McRae’s proposal. “If (Gilroy voters) can’t even pass a $12 bond for something so worthy (as a library tax), it would be a bit of a stretch.”
Last month voters supported a 10-year $33.66 parcel tax for library funding, but rejected a second measure that would have upped that by $12 a year.
“I think (McRae’s) trying to make a statement as to what kind of commitment the community has to education,” Rosso said.
Board member Jim Rogers was in agreement.
“I have a long-range view of the community – I know how hard it was to pass our facilities bond,” he said referring to the $69 million Measure I facilities bond Gilroy residents barely passed in 2002.
McRae believes a parcel tax would benefit the school district by paying higher salaries to teachers.
“You can find plenty of teachers who are willing to commute to Palo Alto, but you never see teachers in Palo Alto coming down to Gilroy,” McRae said.
The average teacher salary in the Palo Alto school district is $71,255. The average in GUSD is $54,449.
He said that GUSD cannot compete academically with other school districts if doesn’t compete financially. Gilroy’s 2004 Academic Performance Index base is 681, more than 200 points below Palo Alto’s.
“As a school board member, I often hear comments asking what we do not do, that high-achieving districts do,” McRae wrote in his letter. “While there are strategies we can learn from and adopt, we are avoiding the bigger issue: Money. … Simply put, the community of Palo Alto cares more about education than the community of Gilroy.”
According to the 2000 census, Gilroy’s median income is $62,135, while Palo Alto’s is $90,377. Rosso pointed out that because of Palo Alto’s relative wealth, a tax would not impact residents as greatly as in Gilroy.
But McRae has another view.
“Is the difference between Palo Alto and Gilroy one of strictly income or is it attitude?” McRae asked. “Is the city of Gilroy as a whole willing to step up? … Is everyone really doing everything they can?”
GUSD board member Rhoda Bress disagreed.
“I think talk of a parcel tax is a little premature,” she said, explaining that the district first must offer the community a product they will be willing to invest in.
McRae insists that creating a dialogue about a parcel tax with the community is important.
“I know it’s not going to be on the next ballot,” he said. “I’m not as hung up on a distinct amount – it’s what’s in people’s hearts.”
