Foothill-De Anza college, Cupertino Union districts ask voters to OK tax measures
Voters in the Foothill-De Anza Community College and Cupertino Union School districts are being asked to approve three new tax measures in the March 3 primary election to finance salary increases for teachers, tackle issues such as student hunger and affordable housing, and pay for needed capital projects and campus upgrades.
The Foothill-De Anza Community College District — which includes Cupertino, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Stanford, Sunnyvale and parts of Saratoga — is seeking voter approval of Measure G, an $898 million general obligation bond, and Measure H, a $48 annual parcel tax good for five years.
The Cupertino Union School District, which covers Cupertino and parts of Sunnyvale, San Jose, Saratoga, Los Altos and Santa Clara, is championing Measure O, a $125 annual parcel tax good for more than five years.
Because the districts overlap, certain property owners would pay all three taxes if the measures pass.
Both Foothill-De Anza and Cupertino Union are being forced to make budget cuts to cope with a reduction of state funding due to declining enrollment and growing employee pension costs.
Foothill-De Anza Chancellor Judy Miner said the community college district is pushing both measures because of restrictions on how bonds can be spent.
Bonds from Measure G
could only pay for capital and construction costs and facility and technology upgrades, yet the college district has outlined other needed projects, such as upgrading classroom equipment, replacing campus infrastructure with energy-saving technology and improving campus wireless networks.
“As we face the demands of employers for better trained workers in computer science, automotive technology … it really requires us to refresh our instructional equipment and infrastructure,” Miner said.
Bond revenue also could go toward student and teacher housing, including a joint faculty housing project in Palo Alto with the county in which the district would pitch in $600,000. Miner said the district would consider partnering with other agencies or private entities to provide housing rather than building and funding the entire project itself.
Money from a parcel tax, in contrast, can be used to pay for almost anything except administrative salaries and benefits. The college district says that money would cover teacher salaries and initiatives aimed at helping students afford to live in the area.
The district, for example, is exploring a joint powers authority with neighboring school districts.
“We’re looking at partnerships on how to support each other with child care, psychological and mental health counseling … and even helping individuals who might need rapid rehousing,” Miner said. “That would not be possible with the bond, but it would be under the parcel tax.”
The Measure G bond would be paid back by taxing property owners $160 per $100,000 of assessed value, which would raise $48 million a year. Measure H, the parcel tax, would charge property owners a $48 flat fee for five years, raising about $5.6 million annually, according to the district.
The college district has had to cut $17.6 million to deal with a drop of more than 4,100 students in the past five years. This fiscal year, it is projecting a $3 million budget shortfall that could grow to $5.6 million in two years.
Voters in the college district passed a $498.8 million bond, Measure C, in 2006, but most of that money has been allocated, Miner said.
Cupertino Union, meanwhile, is hoping the Measure O parcel tax will generate more than $4.3 million a year over the next five years.
That’s on top of Measure A, a $250 parcel tax passed by voters in 2014 that expires in 2023. Measure O would extend and consolidate the existing parcel tax.
Jeff Bowman, Cupertino Union’s chief operating officer, said the district is asking for the new parcel tax because it needs to pay teachers more so they can afford to live in the Bay Area.
“Funded the way we are, we are just really behind our peers, and the ability to retain the highquality staff gets harder and harder,” Bowman said. “Teachers can go to nearby districts and see an increase of over 10, 15,000 dollars just by changing districts.”
Cupertino Union, which relies heavily on per-student state funding, is projected to lose more than 4,600 students between 2015-16 and 2024-25. The district currently receives roughly $8,500 in state funding per student.
More than 80% of the district’s costs are for salaries and benefits.
Costs for public employee pensions also are increasing, by $1.6 million from last fiscal year alone.
The district is expected to cut $3 million to $4 million next fiscal year, Bowman said.
The Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association, which opposes all three ballot measures, argues they would give school administrators too much discretion on how to spend the money and end up going toward growing employee pension and salary costs.
Pierluigi Oliverio, one of the group’s board members, says the state has a projected budget surplus for this fiscal year and should help the districts.
“Local districts should be laser-focused on their locally elected state representatives to make sure they receive the funds necessary, instead of spending all this time drafting ballot measures and raising money and campaigning,” Oliverio said. “If they put that same amount of effort into their representatives, perhaps they’d have the funds they need.”
The bond measure needs 55% of the vote to pass, while the parcel tax requires a two-thirds majority.