| | Published March 18th, 2009
| OUSD Parcel Tax Passes
| | By Andrea A. Firth | | |
The Orinda Union School District (OUSD) Parcel Tax proposition passed with almost 71% of voter support and nearly 60% of voters participating in the March 3rd Special Election.
After what he describes as scary and thrilling ride down the campaign trail, OUSD Parcel Tax Committee Co-Chair (and City Council Member) Steve Glazer's dominant feeling the morning after the election was relief. "This was quickly followed by the utmost thanks that our Orinda community has shown again how much they greatly value our schools," he adds. Described as the campaign's key strategist by Co-Chair Riki Sorenson (who also serves time as the OUSD Governing Board President), Glazer predicted the turnout and number of votes needed to pass the parcel tax within a percentage point and a few hundred votes.
Although the majority of ballots were cast by mail, the Parcel Tax Committee's third Co-Chair, Lynn Goodman Molloy, organized an army of 90 volunteers who went door to door on a very rainy Tuesday, where an inch and half of water poured down on the Orinda streets, to get out the remaining twenty percent of voters to ensure the parcel tax passed with the requisite 2/3 voter approval.
The new parcel tax will cost Orinda residents $525 annually and generate an additional $870,000 in revenue for the School District each year. The parcel tax monies could start to accrue by July according to OUSD Superintendent Dr. Joe Jaconette. The Governing Board has begun preliminary discussions regarding how to allocate the parcel tax funds. "We want to be cautious and deliberate in spending the parcel tax," states Sorenson. "We are not likely to use all the parcel tax money at once to solve a problem. We are more likely to use it over a period of time. This is how it has been managed historically," she adds.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA