SMRR Throws Support Behind Parcel Tax, Increased City Funding for Schools

By Jorge Casuso

April 6 -- The tenants group that controls City Hall threw its support Sunday behind June’s school parcel tax and urged the City Council to increase its funding to the beleaguered district, but stopped short of recommending an amount.

The nearly unanimous vote cast by members of Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights at its biannual convention came after representatives from the City Council, School Board and College Board of Trustees painted a gloomy financial picture that will require major budget cuts at all three institutions.

A key issue was how far the council, which faces a budget shortfall that could be as high as $16 million, should go in helping to bail out the district, which will be $13 million short unless the parcel tax -- Measure S -- wins in June.

A motion by education activist John Petz requesting that the council boost its current $3.5 million annual allocation to the district by $3 million never reached the floor. Instead, former Mayor Judy Abdo made a substitute motion that supported an increase without specifying an amount.

“I didn’t think it was a good idea to put any number out there given that we don’t know what the situation would be,” Abdo said after the meeting.

Instead, Abdo’s motion called for the SMRR Steering Committee to work with “the City, the schools, the college and the community to try to maximize the money going to the schools and to urge the council to be more generous,” Abdo said.

Mayor Richard Bloom said he welcomed the flexibility provided by Abdo’s motion.

“I was pleased with the discussion,” Bloom said after the meeting. “It centered around the City understanding it has some hard choices to make and giving the City some flexibility.

“We’ve got a large constituency of people who are looking to us for additional funds at a time when we have a seriously diminished amount of funds to spend,” Bloom added. “We really don’t even know what our own deficit is yet. Whatever we give, we’re going to have to take it away somewhere else.”

The SMRR membership also voted to support Measure S, which would pump $6.5 million a year for six years into the district, but requires 66 percent of the votes in Santa Monica and Malibu.

“That’s ongoing funding that can be depended on for six years,” said Abdo, a school district administrator. “Any other way of bringing money in is stop gap, trying to prevent a crisis. There is no way you can expect any entity to give enough to bring back all the teachers.”

The cuts approved by the School Board for the upcoming school year include eliminating 66 full-time teachers and 25 teachers in special programs, including all elementary music teachers.

SMRR leader Nancy Greenstein said the organization would throw its support behind whatever plan the steering committee hammers out.

“One of our most important resources is people and the respect many have in our work and our positions,” Greenstein said. “We will reach out to the community as part of a larger coalition.”

Greenstein, who is a member of the College Board, said the meeting brought home the scope of the budget crisis.