Acalanes Parcel Tax: Cost Reductions, Sacramento Advocacy and Measure W's Structure Merit Support

Acalanes Union High School District voters will decide in November whether to approve Measure W, a new $168 annual parcel tax expected to generate approximately $6 million per year for the district.

SMARTMoraga supports Measure W. Our position follows a review of the district's financial circumstances, its recent cost reductions, its efforts to address California's school-funding formula in Sacramento, and the specific construction of the tax being proposed.

We also met for approximately two hours with AUHSD Superintendent John Nickerson to discuss the district's finances, reductions already undertaken, state funding and the proposed measure. Separately, we discussed the district's financial position with a former local official and former chief financial officer, who also supports the measure.

The most important factor in our assessment is that AUHSD has not responded to its financial problems simply by asking taxpayers for more money; it has undertaken legitimate efforts to address budget realities and has committed to continuing these efforts going forward.

More Than $4 Million in Ongoing Cuts

Over the past two budget cycles, AUHSD has implemented approximately $4.2 million in ongoing expenditure reductions—more than $2 million in 2025-26 followed by another approximately $2.2 million in 2026-27.

Those reductions have not been confined to accounting adjustments or hypothetical future savings. They have included reductions to administrative staffing, teaching positions and advanced electives, counseling, library services, technology, maintenance and operations, professional development and student enrichment programs.

Among the more significant changes, the district reports that central administrative staffing has been reduced by approximately 19 percent. Library staffing was reduced from a librarian at each of the district's four comprehensive high schools to one district-wide librarian. Counseling and teaching positions have also been reduced.

The reductions preceded Measure W. Following the failure of the district's previous parcel-tax proposal, Measure T, in 2025, AUHSD proceeded with roughly $2 million in planned reductions and subsequently approved another round for 2026-27.

In other words, the sequence matters: the district cut expenditures, returned for a second year of additional reductions, and is now asking voters for additional revenue after those reductions proved insufficient to eliminate the structural funding problem.

The cuts are also reaching areas that directly affect students. At some point, continued reductions cease to be simply administrative belt-tightening and begin changing the educational program the community has historically expected its high schools to provide.

A State-Funding Problem AUHSD Has Raised for Years

AUHSD also has not treated local parcel taxes as the only answer.

The district has long argued that California's Local Control Funding Formula provides inadequate base funding to districts such as Acalanes. That concern predates both Measure W and the current budget crisis.

Today AUHSD is participating in the statewide Raise the Base initiative, a coalition advocating for an increase in the base grant provided to all California school districts under the Local Control Funding Formula.

The distinction is important.

Raise the Base does not propose eliminating the additional funding California directs toward districts serving greater numbers of low-income students, English learners and foster youth. Instead, it seeks to increase the underlying LCFF base grant. Because supplemental and concentration funding is calculated in relation to that base, increasing it would also increase funding for higher-need districts.

AUHSD is actively engaged in that effort and has advocated for greater base funding well before Measure W was crafted and before the current Raise the Base campaign was formed.

That history matters when evaluating whether Sacramento advocacy is simply a talking point accompanying a tax measure. The documentary record indicates otherwise.

Measure W Is Relatively Constrained

The construction of Measure W was another significant consideration in SMARTMoraga's assessment.

The proposed tax is $168 per parcel annually for eight years. It is not permanent and either sunsets entirely or, if the District believes it requires continued funding at that time, requires justifying that need along with its performance under Measure W's proposed terms.

Just as importantly, there is no inflation escalator or cost-of-living adjustment. The assessment remains $168 throughout the eight-year authorization unless voters subsequently approve something different.

That is noteworthy because an earlier AUHSD parcel-tax feasibility study contemplated an annual Bay Area CPI adjustment. Measure W does not contain one.

As a result, the nominal tax remains fixed while its inflation-adjusted value—and its real cost to taxpayers—declines over its eight-year life.

Measure W also provides a full exemption for homeowners age 65 or older who own and occupy the parcel as their principal residence. There is no income limitation on the senior exemption. Seniors already receiving an exemption from AUHSD's existing parcel taxes would automatically receive the Measure W exemption rather than having to reapply. Qualifying SSI and SSDI recipients are also eligible for exemptions.

The measure additionally requires citizen oversight and annual independent audits, though those don't weigh in our decision to support it since that is pretty typical boilerplate compliance.

A Real Sunset

The eight-year expiration is particularly important, however.

Measure W does not give AUHSD an indefinite new revenue stream. If district officials believe the additional parcel tax remains necessary after eight years, they will have to return to voters and make that case again.

That creates an opportunity for taxpayers to evaluate what happened during the intervening period: whether the district maintained fiscal discipline, whether its financial condition improved, whether Sacramento increased base funding, and whether the additional local tax remains necessary.

It also provides an incentive for the district to continue pursuing solutions outside the parcel tax itself.

The Existing Parcel Taxes Remain

Measure W should nevertheless be understood as an additional tax, not a replacement for AUHSD's existing parcel taxes. The district currently collects $301 per parcel annually through its existing Measures A and G. Measure W would add another $168, bringing the combined AUHSD parcel-tax assessment to $469 per year for a nonexempt parcel while Measure W is in effect.

That is a meaningful additional cost and should be presented plainly.

The existing $301 assessment, however, has remained nominally unchanged for approximately 16 years. Its purchasing power has consequently declined substantially over that period as salaries, benefits, utilities, supplies and other district expenses have increased.

Accountability and Spending

Measure W revenue would remain under local control and is projected to provide approximately $6 million annually.

The measure identifies uses including attracting and retaining teachers, maintaining manageable class sizes and advanced academic programs, library and counseling services, career and technical education, technology, instructional equipment and educational materials. The measure also establishes a separate account for the proceeds, requires annual financial reporting and independent audits, and requires a citizens' oversight committee.

The legal language does provide the Governing Board some flexibility in allocating the money among authorized educational purposes. Voters should therefore not interpret the ballot's program list as a rigid dollar-by-dollar spending formula. We do not find that flexibility unreasonable.

Why SMARTMoraga Supports Measure W

SMARTMoraga does not believe that every budget shortfall justifies a new tax, nor that taxpayers should be expected to make up funding gaps without first asking whether expenditures can reasonably be reduced.

In this case, however, several factors distinguish Measure W.

AUHSD has already implemented more than $4 million in ongoing reductions over two years, including reductions to administration as well as programs and services affecting students. Those reductions have not eliminated the district's structural financial problem.

At the same time, the district is pursuing a broader solution in Sacramento through efforts to increase California's LCFF base funding rather than presenting local taxation as the only available answer.

And the tax being proposed contains meaningful limitations: a fixed $168 assessment with no inflation escalator, an eight-year sunset, a broad 65-and-over exemption without an income test, disability exemptions, citizen oversight and independent audits.

Measure W therefore asks taxpayers to provide additional local funding, but it does so after substantial expense reductions and while the district continues seeking changes to the underlying state-funding system. The tax itself is also limited in both amount and duration and requires the district to return to voters after eight years if additional funding is still needed.

Those factors form the basis for SMARTMoraga's support of Measure W.