“Whether big or small, everything is up in the air,” said William Draa, superintendent of the rural Banta School District. “Districts will have to do a lot of priority thinking.”
In the Tracy area, most of the school districts are predicting budget cuts and program losses if Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax initiative fails in November.
On Thursday, March 14, Brown tried to further promote his initiative by creating a united front with Assembly Speaker John Perez, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and the Restoring California Coalition, which includes the California Federation of Teachers.
According to a statement issued by the governor’s office, the new initiative lowers the proposed sales tax increase from a half-cent to a quarter-cent, with an expiration date of 2016. The new plan would also raise income taxes 2 percent for joint tax filers making more than $600,000 a year and institute a 3 percent income tax increase on those earning more than $1 million a year, with both tax hikes lasting through 2018.
“This united effort makes victory more likely and will go a long way toward balancing our budget and protecting our schools, universities and public safety,” Brown wrote.
Many school district officials have said the tax initiative is critical to keeping programs intact, but voter unpredictability makes the outcome difficult to predict.
“Can’t base a budget without anything concrete,” Draa said. “Just have to prepare — this is the world we have been living in for the last two to three years.”
One funding question for Banta is transportation. Because it is difficult for parents to take children to school in rural districts, officials push to have buses available, Draa said, though he did not know whether the money would be available.
Children attending Lammersville and Jefferson elementary schools seem to face a slightly brighter budget future, but for different reasons.
In Lammersville Unified School District, continued growth of the district and Mountain House, its major community, creates a financial upswing. Alvina Keyser, director of business services, said each of the six to 14 building permits pulled each week mean one to four more children in Mountain House schools.
“We’re going to be fine, at least for the next two years out,” Keyser said. “As we’ve been going, we’ve been getting through each year one year at a time.”
Another way Lammersville has remained stable is through preventative cuts made by the board, such as the elimination of after-school programs and summer school. The district has also chosen to leave some vacant positions unfilled.
In the Jefferson Elementary School District, things have been hard, but manageable, officials said. Things got harder Monday, March 12, however, when the district was forced to give six teachers layoff notices.
“Our board has made a lot of good choices and using reserves strategically,” Chief Business Officer Mindy Maxedon said. “We’ve been able to survive using our reserves.”
Maxedon said Jefferson had kept intact programs such as physical education and art and appeared financially set through the 2012-13 fiscal year. The district would have to begin planning budget reductions if the tax initiatives failed in November, though, she said.
Officials of the largest school district in the Tracy area, Tracy Unified School District, are also unsure of the future.
On Tuesday, March 13, Tracy Unified’s assistant superintendent for business services, Casey Goodall, told his school board, “Everything is a big guess.”
If the tax initiatives passed, Goodall said Tracy Unified would be sustained through 2015-16. But that’s subject to the governor’s May revise, he said, which would provide more updates to the state budget picture.
“It behooves us to see the initiative pass,” said Superintendent James Franco.
Tracy Education Association President John Anderson told the board everyone needed to encourage the Legislature to support education, saying he couldn’t see how those concerned about education could not support the tax plan.
Raising taxes on the "rich" is a fools game that never produces expected results. The U.K. raised it's tax rate on the "rich" to a 50% rate and guess what happened? Wait for it.......tax revenue to the government WENT DOWN....not up.
The "rich" aren't going to sit around and wait for the government to confiscate their entire earnings (would you?). Income tax on the "rich" in this state is already higher than most states, and Jerry Brown wants to raise it another 2%? The "rich" are going to leave CA and move to a state that has zero percent state income tax, leaving CA with even less taxable income to fund its overspending.
Wake up sucky politicians...you have to cut spending, not raise taxes. And no, I'm not one of the "rich." But I'll never become rich as long as the government is waiting ready to take every dime I earn to pay for its public union retirement packages and other unsustainable overspending sprees.
I'm not a genius and I actually don't fully understand politics, but this is ridiculous. The state and country issues. It needs to end sometime and I seriously don't understand why these greedy jackasses can't come up with solutions for us. I honestly don't see how politics do our country any good...because obviously they don't! I am sick of it and the stress it causes me and everyone I know.
Perhaps Tracy, Jefferson, and Lamers Unified should post the luxury six figure salaries of it's administration.
Read my lips, no new taxes. People in Tracy are already getting taxed to death, with little to show for it.
I've noticed a lot of construction at schools lately. If they are so far in the red how are they doing the construction? Where are they getting the money for that? Is that different money?