The Oakland Tribune
The New Haven school district is bracing for significant teacher layoffs, class-size increases and program cuts after a manual recount Wednesday confirmed the defeat of the district’s $3 million per year parcel tax measure. The recount resulted in a single vote being added to the yes column when the measure’s campaign committee chairman, Richard Valle, spotted an empty ballot, in which the voter had mistakenly marked “Yes” in the instruction section. But that still left the measure with 65.7 percent of the vote, 81 votes shy of the 66.7 percent threshold to pass.
Schools districts around the state are taking a stand on an initiative that would amend the state constitution to make it much easier to pass new taxes for education. Started in San Mateo County, and with members from around the Bay Area, Californians for Improved School Funding hopes to get the Local Control of Local Classrooms Funding Act on the state ballot in November. The measure would amend the state constitution by lowering the amount of votes required to pass a school parcel tax from two-thirds to 55 percent. The tax-limiting Prop.
City and county leaders across California are fed up, their pleas to state legislators to not raid local revenue sources ignored. For the second year in a row, cities are battling the state in court over local redevelopment money. So they are heading to the ballot box, for the second time in a decade.
The Alameda Chamber of Commerce will host community meetings Thursday to outline its opposition to the proposed ballot initiative to redevelop Alameda Point and to field questions from the public. The chamber’s board of directors voted against the initiative last month, saying it believes the initiative puts businesses and the city at financial risk because it would earmark property tax increments generated by the redevelopment project to go toward SunCal Companies and not to the city.