Posted on 03/07/2006 1:30:14 PM PST by Amerigomag
CARMEL VALLEY ---- The state Department of Education is working to place an initiative for a $50 parcel tax on the November ballot as a way to pump an additional $500 million a year into public school education, State Superintendent of Schools Jack O'Connell said Monday. The tax, an annual assessment of $50 on every property in California, could generate an additional $500 million that would be earmarked specifically for California schools.
EdVoice, described by its leaders as an organization of reform-minded philanthropists who support greater student achievement through investment, is backing the measure, said EdVoice president Christopher Cabaldon. The Sacramento-based advocacy organization began collecting the necessary 600,000 signatures last week, said Cabaldon, adding that it plans to collect 1 million signatures to make sure the measure qualifies. Proponents have 150 days to gather the signatures.
EdVoice grew out of the passage of Proposition 39, which lowered the percentage of votes required for passage of a general obligation bond from 66 percent to 55 percent, making it easier to pass local bonds. Many of the same proponents pushing this proposed initiative backed Prop. 39.
Should the measure be approved, O'Connell said he envisioned increasing the tax every four years by an additional $50. O'Connell vowed that the parcel tax proceeds would add to, not replace, existing school funding streams. The legislature would be prohibited from siphoning money away or attaching onerous "red tape" requirements to school districts seeking the funds, Cabaldon said.
Unlike the myriad rules imposed by the legislature to obtain current state "Class-size Reduction" funds, the parcel tax fund would allow freedom to school districts to reduce classes to any size at any grade level, Cabaldon said. Obtaining the funds would be a relatively simple application similar to a block grant, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nctimes.com ...
Fifty dollars per property! That's pretty good. My tax bill was almost 2000 last year.
We have some of the worst performing schools in the nation while spending the most per student.
Yeah, more taxes...thats the answer.
Property taxes are evil.
And, to allow those who own no property to vote for them, is especially repugnant.
That is an additional $50.
They seem to vote for more property taxes every year.
Its fer the chiiiilllldruuuun!
Why? School enrollment is down and teachers are being laid off. Just juicing up another entitlement program IMHO.
No politican ever met a tax they didn't like.
Property taxes already have a portion earmarked for education, or why I left California.
I thought that this type of crap eneded in CA with Prop 13. Before that residents got Willie Browned regularly up the Unruh!
In violation of my tagline, but what the hey...
Sounds like just another way to grab more money for a failing system. Throwing money at it does no good. Could it be possible that public school systems began to fail when teaching to the average went by the wayside and schools were expected and mandated to provide education for the 'exceptional' (both sides of the equation)? I really don't know that is a question.
I don't think school enrollment is down in CA - it's all the illegals...
If California is anything like Massachusetts,this tax will be $1000/yr within 10 years.
"Should the measure be approved, O'Connell said he envisioned increasing the tax every four years by an additional $50. O'Connell vowed that the parcel tax proceeds would add to, not replace, existing school funding streams."
My liquor bill was $100 last week but I still resent California's socialists and unions digging deeper into my pocket.
A better(?) education for Mexico's poor and less booze for me. Outrageous!
Why don't they just make it a flat $5,000 per parcel now? Why add $50 every year? These people make my blood boil.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
I need to get out of this state, as it doesn't look as if conservatives will ever get power back in this state, at least not in my lifetime.
Philanthropic...with YOUR money!
That's in addition to the property taxes.
On my home in San Jose, that's in addition to the $12,000 I already pay for property taxes.
I like how they will keep on increasing the parcel tax.
I think the schools get plenty of my money.
First, I think we need to get rid of all of the illegal aliens out of public education. I think the schools would have plenty of money for the legal residents.
$50 today, $5,000 tomorrow. Land rents.
Well hmmmmm.......
their calculations must be wrong.
500,000,000/50=10 mil
There are plenty more parcels in California than 10 mil.
Smells wrong already, as usual.
Their motto is “more,” which somehow is never enough.
It is in my area of Calif. I think the agriculture jobs market is saturated and migrants are going elsewhere to look for work. We are actually thinking of closing a couple of middle schools and a high school. Most of the folks moving into the area are retirees who don't have school aged children and who are driving home prices so high that low income workers are taking their broods and leaving the area.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Am I ever glad I left there 16 years ago.
That was true when I was a kid back in the 1960s. That hasn't been true for quite awhile. The state completely over-hauled how monies were distributed and now all monies come from the state general fund. There is a constitutional requirement that the schools be funded and HUGE part of the state budget already goes to education.
The GOOD news is that I would imagine that this bill has to get a super-majority because of Prop 13. I don't imagine it'll pass. THANK YOU PROP 13!
I wonder if that will hit every trailer court also, that will really boost the numbers up as well...
If it passes, which I doubt, it will be $200 a year in 4 years. The school districts are already thinking up new ways to spend (waste) the money. Before the 4 years are over the schools will be in the red and looking at new ways to raise more money (more taxes). If schools would just teach kids to read, write, do math, and learn (discuss, debate, and understand) science, history, and government, the cost would be cut in half or less and our kids would actually learn something useful.
When I live in PA, my kids school got a bond issue to pass. Since they had all this money, they decided to put 5 computers in EVERY room. That was the brilliant plan. So on open house we walk into the choir room and see 5 boxes with brand new $2000 computers stacked in the corner because they had no use for them. Same thing in the band room. That is how schools handle a windfall. The thought of saving a dime never crosses their mind.
If any private business handled finances like schools do (or government in general) they would go bust. If for no other reason that that, school vouchers make sense.
Teachers are incompetent in their art....worthless curriculum....no discipline in the classroom.....idiotic ivory tower Phd's who generate new "improvements" like phonetic spelling and New Math.....and the NEA who direct it all and want more money for their second vacation homes, tenure, and lifetime medical care....
Forget more money for schools....Its pissing into the wind,
Build prisons and mental hospitals for the poor kids we are turning out.
Absolutely correct. Its just the communist tactic of dividing and conquering, class warfare and taxing the other guy. Same kind of malarkey being pushed by those calling for a flat tax. Tax everyone the same amount, not the same rate.
Equal citizens should pay the same amount.
Yeah, that's gonna fly.
Ah - nothing like a local who would know :)
Which requires the greater effort: Adding a new tax or cutting spending? I sure am glad I live in Texas...
add this to a minimum wage bill being pushed by moderates of the GOP and I'd say the game of who kill't the Golden Goo$e is on..
Letting people without property vote is always repugnant.
Jefferson and Madison never would have done anything so foolish.
So9
Typically, a parcel tax is a flat per-parcel fee on real property. This means an equal tax is placed on all parcels of property. Parcel taxes are particularly odious because the result is that retirees living in a bungalow, the new buyer of a tract home, the multimillionaire president of a high-tech company residing in a mansion, and a major corporation all pay exactly the same amount regardless of ability to pay. Since in virtually all communities the majority of parcels of property are residential, the burden falls most heavily on homeowners. And of course, this is another instance where everyone votes, regardless of their obligation to pay the tax. If parcel taxes were to require only a 55% vote, we know from the experience of Prop. 39 virtually all would pass regardless of merit, and the result would be tens of billions in new taxes added to the tax bills of homeowners.
The new wrinkle to this is O'Connell and the state educrats want to be able to have the taxes increased automatically every four years. If this goes before the voters, I bet you will never once hear the proponents of this scheme mention the word "tax increase." Its up to us to get the word out in the event this makes the ballot.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
scheme ever
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Greedy ba$tards!
Mine is over six, and we home school.
It would seem to me that this could be challenged in court. It means that non property owners will not be supporting the schools on an equal par as property owners.
This is a major assault on Prop 13 and we must stop it!
I think giving additional funding to schools just makes the problem worse.
Yep. Can't argue with your logic.
This bone-headed measure will never pass...guaranteed. In the meantime, at least these knuckleheads are providing us with some good comedy.
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