Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Committee recommends increase in next parcel tax

Amount would help maintain level of service

By Michelle Alaimo

The Los Gatos/Monte Sereno-based Citizens Advisory Committee for the Parcel Tax recently announced to the Los Gatos Union School District Board that the school's parcel tax should be raised from $180 to a range between $240 and $260, pending an election next spring.

"In order to provide the same services that the parcel tax has been covering the last eight years, we need to increase it," committee member Pam Bancroft said.

The parcel tax is used to reduce class sizes; enhance instruction in art, music, and physical education; improve library resources; maintain and upgrade facilities; and provide student-support services such as psychologists, counselors and nurses.

"The parcel tax is vital to us," LGUSD Superintendent Bert Pearlman said. The parcel tax will only fund schools in the LGUSD, which includes four elementary schools and one middle school.

The LGUSD board must now decide what the parcel tax amount should be and if the tax should be for four years or for a five- to six-year term, Pearlman said.

The longer term of five or six years is recommended by the committee because it provides longer continuity for planning, Pearlman said. The past two parcel-tax elections have been for four-year terms at the amount of $180, without any cost-of-living increase.

A two-thirds majority is needed in the spring 1998 election for the parcel tax increase to pass. The committee also recommends that all existing exemptions to the parcel tax stay the same in the proposed measure.

The committee has decided against having a bond measure on the same ballot as the parcel tax because they don't want to overtax citizens, Pearlman said. However, the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District is likely to have a bond issue on the same ballot.

The committee, organized by the district, is made up of 45 members who represent different organizations and interests from Los Gatos and Monte Sereno. The committee, headed by Los Gatos Mayor and Los Gatos High School teacher Joanne Benjamin, met weekly for four weeks during May.

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