Share this pageFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 29, 2003
For More Information, Contact:
Kristina Loquist at (650) 688-6384
The California State Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) has released a December 22nd report that revisits last spring’s discussion of a property tax take-away from “basic aid” school districts around the state.
The report, entitled “The Distribution of K-12 Education General Purpose Funds,” focuses considerable attention on the issue of “excess” property taxes that roughly 60 or so basic aid school districts around the State are currently allowed to retain. Over a dozen of these districts are located on the Peninsula, in the South Bay, and mid-Coast.
The report did not make specific recommendations about redistributing funds from basic aid districts. Whether such recommendations will be forthcoming in a subsequent report remains to be seen.
The next hurdle basic aid districts face comes on January 10th when the Governor is expected to release his budget proposal for 2004-2005. In anticipation, Assemblymember Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), Chair of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance, briefed key members of the Schwarzenegger Administration on the concerns of basic aid districts. Simitian met with the Governor’s Chief of Staff Patricia Clarey and Secretary for Education Richard Riordan earlier this month. Simitian said he hoped to avoid “a January surprise like the one we got last year.”