Politics & Government

Should It Be Easier To Pass School Parcel Taxes in Concord?

Some lawmakers in Sacramento want to lower the threshold for approval to 55 percent.

Since 1983 there have been 52 parcel tax elections in Contra Costa County and 25 of them failed. However, 19 of those unusccessful elections would have prevailed had the threshold for passing been 55 percent rather than two-thirds. 

In 2009, Mount Diablo Unified School District's sole attempt at a parcel tax failed with 60 percent of voters approving it. MDUSD is not unique. 

Statewide only one in 10 California school districts have a parcel tax in place, and more than 50 percent of those districts are in the Bay Area. That was just one of the findings in a report EdSource announced Wednesday looking at almost 30 years of parcel tax data.

Find out what's happening in Concordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The report comes as a Democratic supermajority in Sacramento eyes amending the state constitution to make it easier for school districts to pass parcel taxes. California’s voters would still have to approve an amendment lowering the passage threshold from two-thirds to 55 percent, but recent polls show that voters are in favor of giving schools more money and more control over how to spend it.

Here are some of the more interesting conclusions from the EdSource report:

Find out what's happening in Concordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

  • Since 1983, there have been 608 parcel tax elections in California. While roughly half passed with a two-thirds majority, 87 percent would have passed if the bar had been set at 55 percent.
  • Richer districts are more likely to pass a parcel tax.
  • Districts with parcel taxes that received 55 percent of the vote, but still failed, were more likely to have higher numbers of poor students, black students and Latino students. 

The EdSource report asks if lowering the threshold to 55 percent would augment Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to provide more money to poor students in the state's public schools, or would it only make it easier for more affluent districts to create new funding sources? 

What do you think? Would you support a plan to lower the voting threshold to 55 percent?


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here