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By Jorge Casuso
November 6 -- Santa Monicans on Tuesday voted to tax themselves
and continue taxing themselves to update college facilities pump
money into the the general fund.
Prop AA -- a $295 million bond to replace Santa Monica College’s outdated
facilities – won by a landslide with 23,865 voters in Santa Monica and
Malibu voting yes and 14,599 voting no, far more than the 55 percent needed
to win.
Prop SM –which extends the utility users tax (UUT) to new kinds of telephone
technologies, such as T-1 business lines -- won a much narrower victory, with
15,926 Santa Monica voters casting yes votes and 14,612 voting no.
Under Prop AA, the average Santa Monica and Malibu renter will pay $1.12 a
month and the average homeowner $7.34 a month to fund modernization projects
on the half-century-old main campus and its satellite facilities.
The new projects include new state-of-the-art math and science buildings on
the main campus, and a new media and technology complex and a job training building
on two of SMC’s satellite campuses. The bond also would fund the replacement
of 60-year-old Corsair Stadium.
In addition to replacing Corsair Field, which is a popular exercising
venue for local residents, the bond will be used to improve the
college’s Pico Boulevard entrance, adding a new bus pull out
and shelter, as well as landscaping.
The bond also will bankroll efforts to achieve energy savings and
complete earthquake repairs with citizens’ oversight, annual
performance and financial audits, according to college officials.
None of the money would be used for administration.
Opponents charged that the upgrades would lure more students from across the
region, adding to Santa Monicans notorious traffic congestion.
While Prop AA adds a new tax to residents, Prop SM insures that the City can
continue to collect some $12 million a year residents and businesses already
pay in municipal taxes on telephone service.
The measure was prompted by changes at the federal level involving a federal
excise tax on telephone services that left the local tax open to
challenge.
Opponents of the measure charged that the tax would continue in
perpetuity, but to nor foresee any new technologies or use of existing
technologies that could be covered by the tax.
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