Credit: iStockphoto.com

Credit: iStockphoto.com

The parent activists who formed Educate Our State say it's fourth dimension for the state to stop robbing Peter to pay Paul. Peter, in their view, being the schools and the theft being billions in property taxes.

The San Francisco-based parent system is circulating an initiative for the November ballot that it says would sever budget machinations that have contributed to school districts' and community colleges' fiscal distress since the Great Recession and go out them vulnerable when the adjacent economic downturn comes.

The nine-page ballot mensurate, involving a constitutional amendment and iv statutory changes, would delve into the complexities of the "triple flip" of 2004 and other clever financing moves that legislators invented while playing a shell game with shrinking public money. But the result of the initiative, "Protection of Local School Revenues Human action of 2014," would exist elementary: permanently render about $seven billion in property taxes that school districts would have had this year if and then-Gov. Armold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature hadn't shifted the money to cities and counties to comprehend, in turn, what the state owed to them. The ballot measure would preclude the state from tampering with school districts' property taxes in the future. Voters already accept given cities and counties that protection; they did that by passing Suggestion 1A in 2004.

Schools and community colleges are funded through a combination of local property taxes and state taxes. This yr, holding taxes contributed 16.7 pct of revenue for M-12 and customs colleges; that portion would have doubled, to 33.three percent, if the state hadn't redirected more than than $vii billion owed to schools, according to calculations by Jennifer Bestor, an Educate Our Country parent from Menlo Park with a background in finance, who has been deeply involved with the initiative.

The ballot measure wouldn't increase money for schools and community colleges; that'southward non the intent, Bestor said. Instead, the initiative would swap a volatile source of revenue currently coming to schools – state taxes – for property taxes, a more stable and reliable source that had previously belonged to the schools, she said.

Tardily payments to schoolhouse districts illustrate why this is important, Bestor said. After country revenues plunged in 2008, the state responded by postponing payments of money owed to K-12 schools and community colleges to the following fiscal year. Known as deferrals, the belatedly payments grew to nigh $10 billion in 2010-11, most a third of the state's portion of school funding. Those districts that couldn't borrow money from their county treasurer turned to other lenders and paid college interest rates; districts in the worst financial shape, which couldn't borrow, cutting programs and jobs.

The districts near adversely affected past deferrals included districts in San Bernardino County and Ravenswood School Commune in Eastward Palo Alto, which had the least belongings wealth per student and therefore relied on country acquirement for near of their school funding. They also by and large take high percentages of low-income children. Increasing districts' reliance on country revenue to fund schools created more pain for schools, Bestor argues.

Gov. Jerry Brown is the get-go to acknowledge that deferrals, part of what he calls the state's "wall of debt," have harmed schools and community colleges. That's why he is proposing to expedite ending belatedly payments past paying off the last $6 billion in deferrals in the 2014-15 state budget. And, to bargain with the volatility of country revenues, Brown wants the Legislature to create a bigger rainy day fund tied to fluctuations in majuscule gains revenue. He would add a 2d tier of protection within the rainy 24-hour interval fund to smooth out spending under Proffer 98, the formula that determines the almanac level of school funding.

Bestor takes common cold comfort in these measures. As Dark-brown observed in his summary for the 2014-fifteen budget, since the 2d World War, the country has seen an economic recession every five years, on average, and it's been iv ½ years since the terminal one, leaving schools vulnerable once again to manipulations of the Prop. 98 guarantee if revenues fall.

And a rainy 24-hour interval fund doesn't address the issue at manus: "First, make us whole; give u.s. our stable, reliable stream dorsum, instead of protecting united states of america from the volatile conditions nosotros take been force-fed," she said.

Strong opposition from counties, cities

Screen Shot 2014-02-12 at 9.36.11 PMFor supporters of the initiative, the cause is just and the demand cocky-evident. But qualifying for the November election by relying on parent volunteers to collect 1.3 meg signatures at farmers markets and outside schoolhouse property by mid-April volition be challenging. (Signature gatherers can be spotted wearing Dr. Seuss red-and-white striped "Cat in the Hat" stovepipe hats.) And if the initiative does brand the ballot, it will face up formidable opposition from cities and counties, which already are complaining that Dark-brown and the Legislature accept cutting social services severely and unloaded public safety responsibilities on them.

This chart by the Legislative Analyst's Office shows that over 30 years, the personal income tax, which drives state revenue, has been three times as volatile as revenue from the 1 percent tax on property. Property tax revenue tends to lag state economic trends by a year or two. Source: Understanding California's Property Taxes, by the LAO, November 2012.

This nautical chart by the Legislative Analyst's Role shows that over 30 years, the personal income tax, which drives state revenue, has been 3 times as volatile as revenue from the 1 pct tax on holding. Property taxation acquirement tends to lag state economic trends by a year or two. Source: Understanding California's Property Taxes, by the LAO, Nov. 2012.

The initiative would gratis up $half-dozen.8 billion in the General Fund but requires that the state backfill only $4.3 billion that cities and counties would lose in belongings taxes. That was the initial amount that was transferred to them in 2004. Since and then, the revenue, tied to growth in assessed valuation, has grown by $2.5 billion, which the Legislature may or may not encompass when the changes take result.

"The Educate Our State initiative would impose a severe and immediate reduction to county and city property taxes of about $2.5 billion in 2015-xvi and growing over time," Matthew Cate, executive director of the California State Association of Counties, wrote in an email. "This means counties and cities across the state would have to reduce public services that rely on full general purpose revenues, which essentially means public prophylactic reductions. It is difficult to contemplate what a reduction of $ii.5 billion in public prophylactic services looks like in our communities, especially when counties have assumed meaning new responsibilities for incarcerating, supervising and rehabilitating new offender populations."

Katherine Welch, a board member of Educate Our State, said that the organization will announce endorsers of the ballot mensurate on April 1. Meanwhile, information technology is asking school boards to back a resolution of back up and let elected officials know they're behind it.

John Fensterwald covers instruction policy. Contact him and follow him on Twitter @jfenster. Sign up here  for a no-toll online subscription to EdSource Today for reports from the largest education reporting team in California.

To get more than reports like this ane, click here to sign up for EdSource'due south no-cost daily email on latest developments in instruction.