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Pleasanton school trustees moved ahead on the staff recommendation to explore putting a parcel tax before voters.
All of the details—timing, amount, duration, language—remain to be figured out over the next few months. Pleasanton voters last considered a parcel tax in 2009 and turned it down. Three years ago, they passed a $395 million facilities bond that is being used on a variety of site improvements.
The challenges that loom are significant:
- The district needs a reasonable explanation for how it bungled its cash flow so badly that it has to borrow money from the county education office after it exhausts its ability to borrow between its own dedicated funds. This is a big Oops. The credibility of the district and trustees is called into question as they are asking for more money. Developing a local revenue stream that they control is reasonable, but voters want to be confident it will be spent well.
- The city also is strapped for money. The previous City Council was roundly rejected by voters along with its ½-cent sales tax increase. The new council, after due diligence work, now is faced with expanding the economy and revenues with it and/or putting forth a revenue measure or cutting the budget and services.
Given the morass that’s school financing, few residents will understand that they are separate government agencies with their own funding streams. Two measures on the ballot likely results in two defeats.
Mix in the possibility of state or regional measures (a sales tax increase for transit likely will wind up on a ballot next year) and either one will likely be an uphill battle that will take a strong grassroots campaign with solid community leadership.
Livermore and Alameda both lost out to Albuquerque in the contest for where Pacific Fusion will build its research and manufacturing campus. The company opted for New Mexico because of lower costs, an $800 million incentive package and the potential talent at Sandia National Labs that is headquartered there with more than 13,000 employees.
Pacific Fusion co-founder Keith LeChien, a Livermore resident, said California will remain the center of R&D with facilities in Livermore, Fremont and San Leandro. Those allow the firm to tap into Bay Area talent as it strives to build a commercial fusion power plant. The plan calls for it to produce net power by 2030, quite an ambitious goal given the 60-plus years and multiple facilities it took Lawrence Livermore to produce fusion with the National Ignition Facility. Possibly, it could be like the 4-minute while that was surpassed by many runners once Roger Bannister achieved it.
City officials took away some positive feedback from the process and were praised for their thinking and how quickly they moved the entitlement.
Perusing the list of semi-finalists for National Merit Scholarships (determined by a standardized test taken by the students–it’s truly merit), I was struck by just how many came from Amador Valley (44), Dougherty Valley in San Ramon (35) and Dublin (28). The vast majority of names on those lists I would be challenged to pronounce. The three schools are about the same size.
The numbers for other Tri-Valley schools: Foothill (21), California in San Ramon (14), Monte Vista in Danville (10), Granada (8), San Ramon Valley in Danville and Livermore (2 each). There’s no small population schools in the area so the performance difference is intriguing and likely ties directly to the ethnic backgrounds and educational attainment of the parents.
Congrats to all the honored students and their parents.
The last ten years PUSD Board won one billion dollars in new revenue from bond measures.
Measure 1I (2015) 270 million
Measure M (2020) 323 million
Measure I (2022) 375 million
They cannot account for it.
Oh, please. Amazingly false statement.
Perhaps people should look in to the ‘financial expert’ Mr. Sheikholeslami, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services. The mismanagement of funds is nothing new, and the bloated district office administrative staff has been rubber stamped since Haglund came on board. This, coupled with the ridiculous boondoggle of the new district offices, should raise eyebrows for all taxpayers. PUSD board, with the exception of Mokashi, have stood silent and not asked the proper questions. And, let’s not forget the bungled attempt to find a new Superintendent. Does anyone really believe the story they told the community about how that all went down. Geez folks, wake up! Talk to anyone who has left PUSD in the past five years and it will become abundantly clear PUSD is a sinking ship. Good luck convincing the Pleasanton community to give them another dime before they clean up their act.