Parcel tax ballot measure heads to Manhattan Beach voters

Measure MB, a proposed $225 parcel tax, will come before voters Tuesday in an election Manhattan Beach Unified School District leaders and supporters believe will determine whether or not the district can stave off teacher layoffs.

The proposed per-parcel tax would generate $2.65 million annually and expire after six years. The Board of Education, after more than six months deliberation, unanimously voted to pursue the ballot measure in March.

Board president Karen Komatinsky said keeping budget cuts from the classroom is dependent upon Measure MB’s passage.

“We’ve been able to keep the lions away from the gate over the course of many years when other districts around us have had cuts,” Komatinsky said. “We have not —  not cuts in teachers, not cuts in days off our school calendar, not lost programs. We’ve been lucky in that we’ve had great leadership to help us navigate these waters. But we also don’t get the level of funding from the state like a lot of the communities around us.”

Tax measures are always a daunting prospect, electorally, since local tax increases require two-thirds approval by voters. The only other time the district sought a parcel tax, in 2003, voters rejected it. Additionally, relatively low voter turnout is expected due to the June 5 election date; off-cycle, primary elections historically do not draw large numbers of voters, thus making the most diligent voters —  seniors, who tend to both have fixed incomes and less of a direct stake in local schools — a disproportionate part of the electorate. The ballot measure is designed to address these concerns. Single-family homes owned and lived in by senior citizens are eligible for exemption from the tax, as is property belonging anyone living on disability benefits.

A community-led Yes on MB campaign, powered by more than 150 volunteers, has emerged in support of the measure. Yes on MB co-chair Jen Fenton said the campaign has found broad support. She noted that every elected official in the city, as well as State Senator Ben Allen and LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn, are among the 300 endorsements Measure MB has received.

“So it’s not just the parents. So much goes back to our tagline, ‘Strong Schools for a Strong Community,’” Fenton said. “This is about the community.”

The backdrop for the ballot measure is a looming budget deficit. State funding has not kept pace with costs, resulting in projected $10 million shortfalls by 2021. The district, due to a complex array of circumstances that includes a funding model established at the time Prop. 13 was enacted in 1978 that does not account for MBUSD operating a high school, has been forced to contemplate as many as 60 teacher layoffs in coming years.

Education funding in the state has been chronically anemic. By most estimates, California is either 44th or 46th in per-pupil funding, and the states below it —  including Arkansas and Mississippi — all have a much lower cost of living, meaning in real dollars the state provides less funding for education than any other. Because it is frozen at 1978 property tax percentages —  only 20 percent of local property taxes go to local schools — MBUSD is among the lowest funded in the state, hence the nation.

The Manhattan Beach Education Foundation, which last year raised $6 million, has helped the district prevent classroom cuts —  although class sizes, ranging from 24 pupils per class in K-3 and 31 in grades 4 through 12, are much larger than the national average of 14.8. But MBEF funding will not keep pace with increased costs over the next few years, and so the district has turned to the model nearly every other high achieving district in the state employs, which is additional funding through local parcel taxes.  

“Our district has been supported by parents as well as the business community through MBEF, and our schools really do rely on these generous donations,” Fenton said. “But everybody is benefiting from our schools, and our schools are just not getting enough money. At the end of the day, despite this tremendous support, whether in donations or in-kind hours, we still receive one the lowest amounts in [per-pupil] funding in the state. Unlike other high achieving school districts, we don’t have a stable, local funding source that we can rely on to maintain the high level of excellence we have.”

No organized opposition has emerged and no argument against Measure MB was submitted for the ballot statement. But there has been a steady stream of “No on MB” letters to the editor in this and other local newspapers. Local activist Bill Victor, both in letters to the editor and comments at City Council meetings, has made the argument echoed by others in opposition that the district has no shortage of funds. Victor, through a public records request, obtained the district’s daily cash balance report for May 16, which showed a balance of $91.4 million dispersed through 13 different funds, including one containing $78.9 million.

“Availability of an excellent education is important to every community,” Victor wrote in a letter to the editor. “My careful research indicates the current ballot for a parcel tax for 6 years proposed by MBUSD is unnecessary now.”

Victor’s research alarmed some longtime residents, including Jan Dennis, former mayor, and the city’s unofficial historian.

“Everyone is interested in having the best schools and education a child can get —  it doesn’t matter where you live or whether it relates to your property values, of course, you want the best,” Dennis said. “And the money, $225 or whatever the amount is added over six years, that’s no big deal, either. To me, the big deal is the people of Manhattan Beach not knowing about this $91 million —  where is it, and what was it proposed for? If it’s from the bond for the gym… they didn’t put out any information whatsoever until this man went out and started investigating just how much the school district has.”

Superintendent Mike Matthews, in an email, said that the daily cash report obtained by Victor constantly fluctuates and doesn’t represent the district’s budget, revenues, expenses, or reserves.

It only reflects the district’s funds available to access from the County Treasury on a given day at a particular moment in time,” Matthews said.

“The district’s available reserves are not in excess of $91 million, as claimed by Mr. Victor,” Matthews said. “At the end of last year, MBUSD’s reserves were $13.45 million. This is far lower than the $22 million in reserves the district had in 2011. Additionally, the district has had an operational deficit almost every year since 2011, and we only see that getting worse. That is why the district reduced several positions this year and predicts even greater reductions in the years to come. Hence, the Board’s rationale for putting Measure MB on the ballot.”

The largest fund in the report, Matthews said, represented bond proceeds that cannot be spent on anything but facility improvements.

“The vast majority of the $91 million that was referenced ($79 million) represents construction funds from C/EE bond measures approved in 2016 that can only legally be used for facility construction,” Matthews said. “These funds cannot legally be used to pay for general operating costs. Of the remaining funds (approximately $12 million), almost half of the amount is similarly restricted for other purposes, such as food services or preschool, and also cannot be used for general operating purposes.”

Matthews dismissed the notion that the district had in any way been less than forthright.

“Our finances are transparent, published, and available for anyone to examine,” Matthews said. “We review our budgets at least three times a year in public meetings.”

Komatinsky said school budgets, with their array of encumbered and restricted funds, can be difficult to understand.

“Our budget, to someone outside the business of schools, can be very confusing,” Komatinsky said. “It’s complicated and it’s complex, but because we are a public entity, we are also extremely transparent. There’s nothing to hide.”

Fenton said that campaign outreach has been able to effectively convey the district’s financial predicament and thus the necessity of the parcel tax. She said many “empty nesters” support the ballot measure, as well as the heads of historically tax-averse organizations, Mark Lipps of the MB Chamber of Commerce and Kelly Stroman of the Downtown Manhattan Beach Business & Professionals Association. A youth group, the Amigos Unidos MB, has not only supported the measure but volunteered on the campaign, Fenton said, while signs supporting Measure MB have cropped up on lawns, restaurant windows, and on businesses throughout the community.

“This is not just about one or two or three or four kids,” Fenton said. “It’s about all 6,700 kids in the district. It’s about everybody in Manhattan Beach. It’s so much bigger than the microcosm of ‘my family and my kids.’”

Mayor Amy Howorth, a former school board member, recalled seeing her mother work on a school funding campaign after she’d already graduated from high school in her hometown in Ohio. She asked her mother why she was doing it since she no longer had children in the schools.

“You have to create the next generation of good citizens,” her mother responded.

“What people sometimes miss about support for our schools is that most residents get value, even if they have kids in private school or kids out of the school system,” Howorth said. “But people get that successful schools are good for property values, good for community atmosphere, just good all around.”

The city and school district have an unusually close working relationship, as demonstrated by the City Council’s recent decision to allocate $1 million towards school safety. Howorth said this community-wide effort to support education is a hallmark of Manhattan Beach and a reason many families move here. She said this is also why the entire council voted for a resolution supporting Measure MB.

“I think our school district has done a really good job educating the community and the council on the complexities of school finances and the inadequacy of school funding,” Howorth said. “On the council, we have people of different political parties, but I think I can speak for the others —  this [parcel tax] is a form of local control, and we can hold our local officials accountable, which makes people more comfortable in supporting this. I know people say to me, ‘Back in the day we didn’t have to do all this local fundraising.’ Well, we didn’t have Prop. 13 then, and it has taken funds from schools. It has allowed people to stay in their homes, but our schools need a funding source. We all know how important this is.”

Komatinsky, who has one kid graduating 8th grade and another graduating high school, said she has been walking neighborhoods in support of Measure MB wearing a Mira Costa sweatshirt. The response has amazed her.

“I think this community is very unique and very special, not only in valuing education, but this community values the concept that it takes a village to raise a village,” she said. “I’ve had the opportunity to do a lot of neighborhood walks for the measure, and I’ve met lots of people who have had a kid graduate, or have grandkiddies in the district now, and when I walk in a Costa sweatshirt —  I mean, there is this automatic connection….it’s the most heartwarming thing ever. To me, if you ever want to truly experience what this village is like, going out for this measure shows you. Because there is a true connection everybody has, and it’s through the experience they’ve had with our schools.”

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