May 3 Election: Too Close to Call on Measure E Parcel Tax Measure

The Measure E parcel tax proposal for the Los Altos School District (LASD) was narrowly ahead in vote counting Tuesday night, causing some gung-ho supporters to rejoice and others to keep crossing their fingers.

Measure C, which would affect Los Altos residents who attend Cupertino Union School District schools, appeared to have a comfortable lead.

Proponents and opponents fo Measure E, however, will have to wait until 5 p.m. Wednesday to see results that are expected to determine whether the $193 per-parcel tax measure had the margin needed to win.

On Tuesday night, Measue E had 67 percent of the "yes" and 33 percent of the"no" votes, as the tally was posted on the Santa Clara County Registar of Voters website. All tax proposals need a two-thirds-plus-one-vote majority to be approved, not a simple majority.

“I’m still worried,” said Randall Kenyon, assistant superintendent of business services for LASD. “We still have to see the final results. We’ve lost an election by a small margin in the past. So I’m not comfortable yet.”

Indeed, the opposition figured the margin was quite slim.

"They are ahead 90 votes," said Ronald Haley, leader of the “No” campaign, also known as LASD Taxpayers for Reform. He added he was optimistic that could change, depending on how many outstanding ballots there were to be counted Wednesday.

Tuesday marked the end of a month-long voting period in a special mail-in ballot election, for which there was only one item to consider—Measure E.

Elsewhere in Santa Clara County, three other parcel tax ballot measures appeared to win outright Tuesday by wide enough margins, including Measure C, which would impose a $125 parcel tax on Los Altos residents who live within the Cupertino Union School District. This is second parcel tax for that district; voters approved a $125 parcel tax in 2009.

Measure C  won nearly 70 percent of the "yes" votes to 30 percent of the "no" votes, or 19,19426 to 8,345.

Measure A, the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District proposal for a $49 parcel tax, appeared to win, with nearly 73 percent "yes" to 37 percent "no" votes. Measure B, which marked the Sunnyvale School District's first-ever parcel tax proposal of $59, garnered nearly 70 percent "yes" votes to 30 percent "no."

Out of these four, Los Altos School District's proposal was the only one that was too close to call. Of the 13,331 ballots counted Tuesday, the proposal needed 8,887  plus 1 to win. It had 8,977 "yes" votes, a 90-vote lead, which could evaporate if there were a surge of last-minute "no" ballots turned in Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the registrar's office will be sorting and counting ballots received on Tuesday. In total, for all four measures, there were about 2,000 ballot envelopes that were collected on Election Day, said Elma Rosas, the registrar's public information officer. Of those, it is still undetermined how many of those were ballots were for Measure E. Those ballots were dropped off at any of 12 government and community locations on Election Day,  where registrar's office staff waited to received hand-delivered ballots until 8 p.m.

The registrar's office will count and release the Wednesday results by 5 p.m., Rosas said. Any ballots that require further examination and verification would be counted on Friday, she said.

Approval of Measure E would add a $193 parcel tax to the residents, on top of an existing $597 parcel tax approved by voters several years ago. Kenyon said a new tax would bring in $2.3 million to the district for the next six years, providing relief to the budget crisis in the district.

Others in the district, however, are fairly optimistic that Tuesday night’s results were a good indication of the final results.

“At this point, I’m sure this passed,” said Jim Grijalva, president of the Los Altos School District's teachers union. “I’m looking forward to restoring some teachers' jobs.”

Bullis Charter School (BCS) board president, Ken Moore, said that if Measure E passed, the funding gap between the charter school and the district would increase.

“A tax to benefit public schools should benefit every public school student in the community, and Measure E fails to do this," Moore said. "The funding gap between BCS and LASD students will now rise to more than $4,200.”

The votes counted last night represent about 52 percent of the 24,761 ballots issued, said Rosas.

Haley, leader of the "No" campaign, said, "Even if the measure does pass, all the same issues the district faces will remain. We're going to be working on those issues whether the measure passes or fails."

Los Altos Patch will update the results as the county counts the remaining ballots.