Click here for a complete list of our election recommendations.
In 2020, the Loma Prieta Union School District put a parcel tax measure before voters that would have added an annual tax of $164 on property owners.
It fell 1 percentage point short of the needed two-thirds approval.
So it would seem inconceivable that the district would put another parcel tax before voters that is more than double the size of the measure rejected two years ago. Especially when the region is facing financial uncertainty.
Yet, that’s exactly what they did. Measure M would establish an annual parcel tax of $348 for eight years, raising an estimated $640,000 a year.
Loma Prieta is one of the smallest districts in the Bay Area. Loma Prieta Elementary School and C.T. English Middle School serve 450 students in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The district says its parcel tax would primarily go toward teacher salary increases. Loma Prieta teachers are among the lowest paid in the region. But the proposed tax is simply too much to ask taxpayers feeling the pinch of economic uncertainty. Voters should reject Measure M on the Nov. 8 ballot.
An editorial Thursday about the Loma Prieta Union School District ballot measure incorrectly reported that the district's enrollment is declining.
Join the Conversation
We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.