Measure A, a parcel tax critical to maintaining employment and program funding at Palo Alto Unified School District schools, passed with 79.36% approving in a special election tonight, according to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters election results.
The vote was 15,910 in favor to 4,139 against, according to the SCC website. As a special election this year, voters could only vote by mail or by dropping off their ballots at City Hall.
Similar parcel tax measures also passed with wide margins in the Fremont Union High School District, Lakeside Joint School District, Loma Prieta Joint Elementary School District, and Union Elementary School District. The total voter turnout across all precincts was 43.05%, with 70,010 ballots cast.
The tax for Palo Alto Unified School District will be levied at a fixed rate for the next six years with a two percent per year escalation adjustment, according to the SCC Measure A voter information packet. It serves as a continuation of a previous parcel tax approved in 2005. Currently, each household pays $493 per year; Measure A increases that amount to $589, or $8 more per month.
If voters had struck down the measure, $11.2 million would disappear from the PAUSD system, along with a projected loss of $7 million of state funding and an increase in enrollment projected to cost $3 million to the district, according to the Support Palo Alto Schools 2010 Web site.
The combination of deep budget cuts and increased district costs could have led to as many as 105 teacher layoffs, nearly 15 percent of the teacher work force, according to the Support Palo Alto Schools 2010 Web site. Closing an elementary school would have also been a possibility, according to the Support Palo Alto Schools 2010 Web site. Either way, class sizes will necessarily rise.
Measure A includes an optional senior citizen exemption; the only qualifiers are age and Palo Alto residency, according to the text of Measure A. To maintain accountability, the text of Measure A also mandates review of expenditures by an independent committee.
More information to come.