Budget/Taxes

Last week the Davis school board acknowledged that it was dealing with another 3.5 million dollar deficit which will likely result in further cuts to programs, possibly a shorter school year, despite the fact that Measure C is on the ballot.

Last night I happened to be in Esparto and happened to see a sign in front of Esparto High School which stated, “Due to Budget Reasons School Closed February 13-17.”  Thinking about that really put an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach.  That is what we have come to – students will have a week off in February because of budget cuts.

Think for a second what message that sounds to young people.  This is their future.  They will never get those five days of school back.  For some, it may not matter.  For others, it might be the difference between getting an education and making something of their lives, and getting into trouble and ending up in the system.

Occupy UC Davis, with the unfortunate pepper-spray incident, has focused the state and, indeed, the world on the crisis of public higher education in California and the risks that it will spiral out of the range of affordability for middle-class Californians.

In the meantime, the Davis School District met last week, and Associate Superintendent Bruce Colby presented some – shockingly enough – bad economic news.

However, the poll found that more than 70% of voters would either “definitely” or “probably” vote to renew “the existing parcel tax” and, moreover, that support is largely unchanged from the December 2010 poll.

We are just four months away from when the next parcel tax would be held, in March of next year.  According to the meeting last week, the district will receive the results in time to formally authorize the parcel tax election on a special all-mail March ballot.

According to a presentation Thursday night by Associate Superintendent Bruce Colby, “the district’s current ‘positive’ budget certification is based upon the official board approved district budget that includes $6.5 million in reductions pending the election result for the renewal of Measure Q and W.”

I think most observers expected the economy to have turned around by now.  Will we go to a double-dip recession?  Probably not.  More likely is that the economy will continue to sputter along with very low but positive economic growth for the next few years.

The two cities are only ten minutes apart, but they are very different in so many ways.  That point was hammered home, reading this morning’s Woodland Daily Democrat that describes the fact that “layoffs” are a significant part of the Woodland School District’s balancing of their budget.

According to the Woodland paper, “the Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team recommended $3.9 million be cut from the budget for the 2011-12 school year. The budget deficit is estimated to be as high as $6.19 million by 2012-13.”

The headlines were spectacular yesterday as the Governor announced a May revise that for the first time does not make one cringe and run for cover.

The Governor announced on Monday that California will receive about 6.6 billion dollars in “surprise” tax revenues through June 2012, due to higher than expected growth expectation for next year.

With the passage of Measure A  last week, the Board of Education on Wednesday was quick to rescind all of the 61 March layoff notices that were issued for Davis teachers.  This despite the fact that the district may have to cut up to three million dollars from the upcoming budget, depending on what happens with the state budget and what state legislators do with education funding in light of the failure to put the tax extensions on the ballot.

The newly-appointed director of human resources, Assistant Superintendent Matt Best, said on Wednesday, “We promised we would bring these people back with Measure A. And that is what we’re doing.”

District opponents, in the wake of the Measure A election, seem to be on a heightened state of alert.  The most recent evidence is a letter to the Davis Enterprise that once again is long on rhetoric, but short on an adequate understanding of school financing.

Bill Kuhlman notes that Matt Best has been appointed to take over Kevin French’s responsibilities as HR director.

With the passage of Measure A, the district gets to breathe not a single breath.  Not a single one.  The district knows that it closed about 3.2 million dollars in its current shortfall, which would be very helpful if it knew what its current shortfall was.

Our best guess, and the one that we will be operating on, is that it is about six million dollars.  That assumes a lot, though.  It assumes that the state’s budget deficit will remain at its current level and that the legislature will not reach a compromise on tax extensions and therefore, that it will have to cut additional money from the education budget.

This morning’s Sacramento Bee has a story about school districts who are facing, in the voter-approved tax extension that the governor hopes for, an 11 billion dollar question on next year’s budget.

One Superintendent said, “We look at the nature of what’s taking place with the budget, the nature of the economy, the nature of what people are prognosticating.  You have to keep an eye on what’s taking place in the Legislature – or lack thereof.”

Measure A has been an eye-opening experience, perhaps, for a number of people in this community.  In an educated community like Davis, one would think we would understand that the reason the school district was pushing for a ridiculously regressive tax is that it had no other choice.

But sadly, a lot of people have made public comments that belie their basic ignorance of the law or California’s tax structure.

When I first sat and watched supporters of Jeff Christian at the DJUSD School Board meeting in early January, I was impressed with the passion and dedication that these community members had for their coach.

I immediately pressed for the district to give a more full disclosure on their decision to dismiss the coach.  It seemed like the right thing to do.

The worst-case scenario may actually be the most likely outcome, based on the reality before us.  On Thursday night, the Davis school district had to plan for that worst case scenario, announcing that they would have to lay off around 61 teachers to close what is now projected as a 7.1 million dollar budget deficit.

Observant readers might recall that the district faced a similar scenario last year, where it was facing 67 layoffs.  They were able to avoid those through a few factors.  The teachers took pay concessions which saved the district one million.  There were a large number of retirements due to teachers who took the district’s offer of a retirement incentive.  And there was fundraising by the Davis School Foundation.

The school district this evening will discuss actions that will be needed to deal with another three million dollar budget reduction for 2011-12.  The district will have a final resolution at their February 17, 2011 Board Meeting.

State law requires that they act to notify teachers that they will be on the layoff list by March 15, 2011.  Typically they issue more notices than are needed and then rescind layoffs once funding becomes more certain.

I went to the school board meeting on Thursday night, expecting to watch the update on the budget and the final language of the parcel tax that voters would vote on in May, however something interesting happened along the way.

The place was packed with angry parents, and I thought, wow, the parents are upset about cuts to the schools and maybe some of these people are here to protest the parcel tax.  Wrong!  The parents were upset because the girl’s high school basketball coach was fired.