Measure A, the latest parcel tax measure seeking public funding for Moraga's schools, failed to achieve the two-thirds majority it needed to pass, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Elections Division said Thursday.
The measure, which would have added $1.2 million to district coffers if passed, fell short by "a few hundred votes."
A notice posted to the district web site Thursday thanked "all Moraga families and business leaders for their support and the many countless volunteer hours for the Measure A Parcel Tax campaign" and said the district "will continue to work hard in delivering a first class education to our students."
Measure A asked property owners to pay an additional $225 annual tax on top of an existing $325 per parcel tax levied to help fund district programs.
Revisionist sentiments now are not useful and as we know, it has only slowed down the addict, not cured him. New family's move to Lamorinda already primed with two college degrees (probaly two advanced degrees) with the drive to ensure their childrens success. To pretend it's the parcel taxes which keep the schools thriving is ignorant of the facts.
I will stand by my and many others opinion that the schools excel because of us parents and our dedication and DNA. The union makes sure we have no better or worse instruction than any other.
$$$ are not the wholy grail to education. Parental support, social support, etc... go a much longer way.
If we are going to tie their hands on raising taxes (a good idea per me). we need to also tie their hands in terms of spending, surpluses, creation of unfunded liabilities and the need to bake-in dynamism into spending programs to better match funding.... Once those constraints are set up, our leaders should do the detailed optimizations/trade-offs. For the reasons you noted, the ballot box is a poor forum for micromanagement. The solution, however, is not to remove our protections on never-ending tax increases. The solution is to adopt an internally consistent mechanism for matching spending with taxes and avoiding annual crises. On schools in particular, lets ask parents to do more. I just got an email from EFO asking for an additional donation to close a funding gap. As a parent of two students, I immediately and happily chipped in an additional amount that was a multiple of annual school parcel taxes.
So in the end we either need all the no voters to cash out and MOVE because clearly Moraga is too expensive for them even with their hundreds of thousands of dollars even Millions in cash they leave town with when they sell their old in many cases not updated homes LOL. Lets get real about Moraga - it has nothing other than great schools and a nice park. My Wife and I didn't move here for Moraga we moved here for the schools. If we are going to pay a million plus for a house and get lame School support from the home owners who have high home values due to the schools - I would simply recommend to all potential buyers that the Peninsula offers far better professional growth and income options and schools that will continue to get better with time while Moraga goes into decline. This prop A and the up coming solution to fixing the very poor roads is an investment in Moraga home values the Schools being #1.
We have two school-age children and schools were simply one of the motivations we had to move here, albeit a primary one.
No all my neighbors who have young kids to kids in college all moved here for the schools many of them are pretty dang excited about the jump in home values three have sold their homes just recently and are stoked to move out of town with their trunk full of cash. And no so far all three homes were not purchased by LaMorinda people. All three homes in the last three months were purchases by young families moving from SF looking for great schools.
He is now here in Moraga and finds the bitching and complaining about taxes and the lack of public support from the home owners for the schools so stupid all he can do is shake is head and say people here in Moraga are clueless and don't pay Shit.
Throwing more money at something like the schools would be the schools asking for us to do measure A because they want more money than they had last year or the year prior of the year prior to that. When funds are reduced by a Million dollars by the state and you go and ask the local population to help find that money elseware - that is not increasing or throwing more money at the schools its simply replacing the money that isn't sent to them by the state. This whole throw more money at a problem statement is along the same lines as this "Protest Main ST" BS its a generic unfounded comment lacking any sort of logic or actual proof. LOL
There is no argument here that Sacramento can't balance a budget or operate within their financial means so sending more money to SAC makes no sense. Finding ways to keep our money local and pay for things the State has decided it can stop sending us money for makes far more sense which is why Parcel Taxes are becoming very popular - its the local populations of towns and cities across the State sending Sac a very clear message no more money for you we are keeping our money local for the things we need done. The next push will be for SAC to try and get access to Parcel Tax funds by taxing local Parcel Taxes which today Sacramento can't touch local Parcel fees.
The Boomers and their parents ie my grand parents and my parents lived through one of the largest economic booms in the history of the US period. Which is why the boomers and many of their parents created the whole old folks home business. That trend has changed in more recent years there are more and more 30-40yr olds like my self having grand parents end up living at home with the family again. You can thank the slow down in economic growth and changes to how pensions are paid out etc etc. The new trend for 50yr olds who missed the old pension plans and full health coverage retirement packages is a migration to cheaper places to live with good health care solutions - moving to Canada I have three recent co-workers purchase property in Canada and become Canadians for this exact reason. There are actual TV shows now on HGTV where Americans are buying Retirement property in other countries for this exact reason. This is a economic trend per a given population of people due to their life time earnings and events and policy changes impacting their wealth at the outer end of their working careers.