Editorial: Voters in Los Gatos-Saratoga high school district should reject parcel tax hike

Officials of a small South Bay high school district have put their thumb on the election scale by calling a special tax election for May 7.

The Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District’s Measure A would impose a nine-year parcel tax to help cover operating costs starting at $128 annually and increasing with inflation. The tax would replace a fixed $49 annual levy that expires in 2025.

District officials should be setting an example for the community, and especially high school students who will soon be voters, by conducting transparent elections that encourage participation.

Sadly, they have done just the opposite. Voters should not stand for this assault on electoral integrity. They should reject Measure A.

First, consider the timing of the election.

The district’s purported reason for holding a special election essentially amounts to a failure to plan ahead. In their explanation to us, they said they did not want to rush to meet the deadline for the March ballot, and waiting until the November election would not have allowed them time to make budget adjustments if voters rejected the replacement tax.

That explanation doesn’t pass the smell test — especially because the last time the district sought voter approval for a parcel tax was also in a special election, in May 2016.

Much more likely, district officials are seeking to boost their chances at the polls by putting the measure up in a low-turnout election when school supporters will probably be the most motivated to cast ballots.

To understand the magnitude of the turnout difference, consider that in that special May 2016 election, when the last parcel tax was the only thing on the ballot, 11,819 voters cast ballots. But in the November election that same year, at least 19,685 voters participated in the school board election. That’s 67% more voters.

Next, consider the deceptive, district-written ballot wording for Measure A. It says that approval of the district’s measure would be “renewing its expiring education parcel tax at the current $49, plus $79/parcel, providing $2,520,000 annually for nine years, with annual adjustments … .”

For those straining to figure out what that means: The district is proposing to replace a $49 fixed annual parcel tax with one for $128 that would increase annually with inflation.

The ballot wording, with its deliberately tortured sentence structure, never mentions the total $128 amount of the tax, never uses the word “increase” although that’s exactly what this measure would do to the existing tax, and never clarifies that the “annual adjustment” would be a further increase.

The new tax would be added to other supplemental school taxes that residents of the district pay.

The Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District also taxes property owners to pay off school construction bonds. The current tax rate for the school bonds is $13.70 per $100,000 of assessed value. The average assessed value of a single-family home in the district is $1.45 million.

Property owners in the high school district also pay supplemental school taxes for one of four lower-grade feeder districts.

According to the Santa Clara County Controller-Treasurer Department, property owners in Los Gatos Union School District pay a $342 annual parcel tax for school operations, plus $33 per $100,000 of assessed value for school construction bonds.

And Lakeside Joint School District property owners pay a $647 annual parcel tax but do not have an additional levy for construction bonds.

While most residents of the upscale high school district probably have the means to pay the additional Measure A parcel tax, the decision from voters should come in a transparent election that encourages full participation by the community.

That’s not the case here. Vote no on Measure A.