Lafayette’s Measure B Does Not Measure Up

Dear Editor:

On behalf of Lafayette Citizens for Fair Taxes, I am writing to express my continued support for Lafayette Schools, but my strong opposition to the Lafayette School District’s (LSD) untimely and ill-conceived consultant-driven parcel tax increase, Measure B, set for a mail in ballot ending May 3.  This disapproval stems less from the fact that this tenth  School Tax on Lafayetter's tax bills, represents a 47% annual increase in the Elementary parcel tax each of the last 11 years (when it was $84, and now proposed $518) but that the structure of the tax is grossly unfair.

First, as to the matter of the LSD’s claimed "need", and an alleged precipitous drop in State funding putting programs in "crisis", the fact remains that per-student funding ("ADA") has increased steadily from $5,771 in 2000, to $9,015 in 2009. (Per Student Revenue Trends, www.Ed-Data.k12.ca.us) Even LSD Superintendent Brill admits that the District does not have a "funding problem" it has "an enrollment problem." Actually, while revenues, teacher compensation, and Administration costs have been up, LSD has seen its student enrollment drop steadily overall since 2000, an average of 12%, over ten years. Last reported enrollment numbers for 2010 show another drop. At the same time, the number of teachers has held steady, from 187 in 2000, to 186 in 2010.

The District’s parcel tax has grown by leaps and bounds, with other local school taxes. It is the fourth school tax hike in as many years. On top of school bonds, Measure B would result in a parcel tax that will have increased 285% in just 3 years.  www.NoOnB.info

Parcel Tax History:  In 1999 the LSD parcel tax was $84/year.  This amount increased to $132 in 2000, then in 2008, Measure "J" raised elementary parcel taxes another 235% to $313 which increases automatically 3% per year for 7 years.  It is now at $332 (increasing again in July) or 252% of the 2008 rate. If passed, Measure B will result in a 508% tax increase since 2000, or a hike of 47% each year over 11 years.

Lafayette K-8 total enrollment (all LSD schools) has declined from a peak of 3544 students in 1999-2000 to 3205 the past 2 years a drop of 10%.  In fact the attendance since 2005 continues to be lower than any year since 1994.    Yet the number of teachers has remained the same (186 vs 187) or FTE only down 2.8% while salaries have increased 42% resulting in a 52% disparity between the decline in enrollment and increase in salaries.  Even though FTE Teachers has generally trended down with enrollment, the salaries have far exceeded the Bay Area CPI.  The parcel tax will have increased 517% if Measure B passes, or 47% per year over 11 years.

Measure B’s "Temporary” $518 Elementary parcel tax level (In July Measure B will add $176 more to the increased "J" tax at $332+3%) would be 392% of the April 2008 tax. But we all know from experience, that there is no such thing as a temporary tax. They only increase when they are renewed, just as J did.

An Unfair Tax Gives A Freebie to the Wealthy: But the worst thing about Measure B (and Measure J, before it) is that it unjustly shifts the tax burden between citizens in unfair and irrational ways. Shaped and promoted by top tax "architect" Larry Tramutola (the so-called "Billion Dollar Man" because he has passed more school and municipal taxes than any non-elected person), Measure B once again buys the reliable senior vote by doling out purely age-based exemptions regardless of need or wealth, and avoids negative campaign funding by keeping commercial parcels, even huge ones like shopping plazas and 50-unit apartment buildings, taxed at the same rate as small single family homes.

While seniors are certainly deserving of our great respect, this age group hardly needs more subsidy in Lamorinda. In point of fact, seniors are among the wealthiest age group by assets, enjoying the fastest growing incomes in the last 2 years, and the second highest group overall for asset level. Fewer than 3% of all Lafayette seniors have income below the poverty level.

Tax Consultant Tramutola – The “Billion Dollar Man”:  Mr. Tramutola knows full well that seniors, like any other fair-minded group, will vote in their best interests (in large numbers), and that would be to pass a tax that exempts them from paying school taxes. This is a problem for working families, especially those stretched thin in more modest homes with large mortgages (many seniors have none) since they are called upon to pay a higher school tax to make up for the 28% of Lafayette homes now occupied by seniors. The LSD reports that 1,107 homes are already senior exempt – a number growing every year --and seniors are figuring out that they can escape rapidly escalating school taxes by merely checking a box on a form to achieve permanent tax exemption.  (To Moraga and Orinda's credit, their senior exempt taxes are need-based, not purely age-based.)

Finally, Mr. Tamutola has a strangle-hold on our school tax measures – a "lock" on the business, if you will. With a prominent School Board Member advocating for successive increases in the Parcel Taxes, she simultaneously holds a voting School Board leadership position, while at the same time serving as a key staff member of Tramutola, LLC, the premiere tax consulting firm, headquartered in Oakland, representing Tramutola throughout the State.

 Voters should all look carefully at Measure B, and read up and get the facts before they succumb to the slick District campaign and widespread fears about draconian cuts threatening their children’s future and well-being. It’s high time we let Mr. Tramutola and the LSD School Board know, that enough is enough. Vote NO on Measure B. Read more: www.NoOnB.info

LAWRENCE M. PINES, ESQ.

Lafayette, California

ON BEHALF OF LAFAYETTE CITIZENS FOR FAIR TAXES