A New Parcel Tax Isn’t the Answer

I’m calling on the Board of Education to stop wasting time and taxpayer money with a parcel tax ballot measure. This isn’t forward thinking and demonstrates how distant and out of touch this Board is to the financial misery of San Diegans and further draws a distinction between reality-based budgeting and the ridiculous sticker and bicker budgeting process (referenced as priority based budgeting).  This board must be better stewards of our money.

The parcel tax is the latest attempt by this School Board to raise taxes to cover the school district budget gap caused by State cutbacks.  Last month, the School Board unanimously passed a resolution asking for the State to raise our taxes.  Now, in addition to the request to raise our State taxes, our School Board is asking San Diegan’s to increase contributions to backfill their fiscal mismanagement.  Without greater discretion and purview – kids loose – period. In upcoming posts, we will talk about possible solutions that are available NOW without raising taxes.

In addition to paying for a consultant, They wasted money on a flawed report. I have a real issue with the poll conducted that appears to support a parcel tax.  The poll is flawed and the numbers have been manipulated.  The school district reported that 500 San Diegans were polled, however only 115 answered the question regarding the parcel tax assessment.  These types of results do not merit further district monies being appropriated towards this proposed ballot measure. The dollars spent on consultants and pollsters are another example of wasted money in a time of crisis. The consulting fees alone could hire multiple teachers for several years instead of having been spent on a flawed and biased poll. The following is from the Union Tribune Jan 30:

School tax survey had crucial flaws

The San Diego Unified School District survey results reported by Maureen Magee (“Parcel tax may be headed for ballot,” Jan. 27) left me scratching my head. From years of observing voter opinion on tax issues, it just didn’t pass the smell test.

The Taxpayers Association contacted John Nienstedt, president of Competitive Edge and a pollster well-respected by people with a wide variety of political views. He pointed out that while the poll appears to have a statistically valid sample of 500 respondents, one has to read the fine print. Evidently, not all the questions were asked of all the people polled. Some questions were answered by only 115 respondents. Pollsters will tell you this produces a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 9 percent. No one should draw any conclusions based on this margin of error.

Chula Vista relied on a faulty poll when it put a sales tax measure on the ballot. It failed miserably, wasting taxpayer dollars it could ill afford to lose.

But even accepting the results at face value, they aren’t good news when discussing a measure that needs a two-thirds majority to pass. Conventional wisdom says you need to start with a minimum 70 percent favorable response to have a chance of passage. The poll was taken in the absence of organized opposition, and the favorable responses will only drop as the election approaches.

If board members base decisions on these findings, they will repeat Chula Vista’s mistake.

The Taxpayers Association previously expressed its opinion about spending the funds to engage a consultant on this issue in the first place. Enough taxpayer money has already been wasted on this useless poll, let alone a pointless ballot initiative.

MIKE McDOWELL   Chairman   San Diego County Taxpayers Association

We need to tell this board ‘enough is enough,’ and elect someone who is prepared to roll up his sleeves, dig into the details, and make the hard business decisions to protect the sanctity of the classroom.

Advertisement