The unions tried to extort the people of Los Angeles. They closed down the schools for two weeks, on strike. Give us our demands, or else. Finally, the District caved and signed a contract for which that did not and do not have the money to pay. No problem, the union said, create a parcel tax—the suckers will do anything for their children, pay any price for the inferior Third World education our members provide.
SHOCK.
Less than half the voters were willing to take more of their hard earned money and throw it down the union rate hole. Now the District is going to have to lay off lots of people, kill lots of programs and projects—just to finance the extortion scheme of the unions.
Michael Burke, Los Angeles School Report, 6/5/19
Setting back efforts to restore Los Angeles Unified to financial health, voters have decisively rejected a tax on real estate which would have raised approximately $500 million annually for the state’s largest school district.
With 100 percent of the votes counted at 1 a.m. Wednesday, Measure EE won only 45.68 percent of the vote, with 54.32 percent against. That was more than 20 percentage points less than the two thirds majority the parcel tax measure needed for passage.
The measure, which would have been in effect for 12 years, would have imposed a tax of 16 cents per square foot of interior space on residential and commercial property. The owner of a 2,000 square-foot-house would have paid $320 a year.
The overwhelming defeat of the measure represents a major setback to teachers and many other backers of the measure, including the Los Angeles school board and Mayor Eric Garcetti. The board voted unanimously in February to put Measure EE on the ballot in the wake of a teachers’ strike that attracted significant public support. The board commissioned a survey earlier this year that showed that more than two-thirds of respondents said they would support a 16 cents per square foot parcel tax.
The results of that survey and the momentum from the teachers’ strike gave district leaders optimism that Measure EE could generate enough support to get over the high bar of a two-thirds majority vote. However, that was not to be.
Among the many factors that contributed to the measure’s defeat was the strong opposition of several business organizations, including the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.
As the measure headed for defeat, prominent supporters said they would not give up. “We’re not going anywhere,” Garcetti said at a Tuesday night rally in Boyle Heights. “Pass or not, tomorrow we roll up our sleeves and continue that work.”
Superintendent Austin Beutner indicated that regardless of what happened, something positive would come out of the effort to pass the tax, which would have been the first of its kind in the district. “We’ve put together the broadest, deepest, most diverse coalition in support of public education in our community in a generation,” he said
Failure to get voter approval of the tax could make it more difficult for the district to follow through on promises it made at the end of January’s teachers’ strike to hire additional support staff, reduce class sizes and increase teachers’ pay. The district has said the class-size reductions and the additional nurses, counselors and librarians that the district committed to will cost $403 million over the next three years.
The agreement between the district and United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), the teachers’ union, also called for giving teachers a 6 percent raise.
Concerns have already been raised about whether the district will be able to pay for the commitments it made in the contract. The Los Angeles County of Education said in a report to the district board earlier this year that the contract “is not sustainable on an ongoing basis.”
The tax measure was backed by district leaders as well as both union and charter supporters. Both major unions, the teachers’ union and Local 99 of Service Employees International Union, which represents most of the district’s non-teaching employees, backed the measure. Eli Broad, the billionaire philanthropist, and the California Charter Schools Association also supported the tax.
In the voter’s guide, the argument in favor of the measure, signed by Garcetti and others, called the tax a “critical part of the solution to the public education funding crisis that was highlighted by the recent teachers strike.”
“Teachers and school district leaders agree that Measure EE will lower class sizes and provide needed resources for local schools and pay salaries to retain and attract quality teachers and student support staff,” the statement reads.
Several business groups, including the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, opposed the measure and mounted a campaign against it, arguing that district officials couldn’t be trusted to spend the money as they say they will.
The anti-measure statement in the ballot reads in part: “DON’T BE FOOLED. Money from the tax won’t add resources to classrooms. It will be used to temporarily fix a budget deficit and to pay for LAUSD’s over-promised pension and health insurance costs.”
Tuesday’s vote marked the second time since 2010 that the district had failed to pass a parcel tax. The 2010 measure received less than 53 percent of voter support.
In both elections, the measures were up against history. Only a small portion of districts in California — fewer than 13 percent — have ever successfully approved a parcel tax. Those districts that have done so are generally small, high-income districts that are heavily concentrated in the Bay Area.
Fewer than 20 percent of districts with parcel taxes have a majority of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals, a 2013 EdSource analysis found. In LAUSD, eight in 10 students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals.
Measure EE: What Voters Were Asked to Approve
To retain/attract quality teachers; reduce class sizes; provide counseling/nursing/library services, arts, music, science, math, preschool, vocational/career education, safe/well-maintained schools, adequate instructional materials/supplies; support disadvantaged/homeless students; shall Los Angeles Unified School District levy $0.16 per square foot of building improvements annually, exempting seniors/certain disability recipients, providing approximately $500,000 annually for 12 years, requiring annual audits, oversight, and funding local schools?
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