Benjamin Franklin once said there are two certain things in life: death and taxes. Southwestern College dean Dr. Joel Levine said residents of the district may not have much say over the former, but should reconsider the latter.
Levine has proposed that SWC consider called a parcel tax that residents would approve via the ballot to fund higher education. Unlike traditional bond measures that may only be used on construction, Levine said a parcel tax could be used for a variety of college needs, including instruction, which has suffered severe cuts for nearly a decade.
California Senate Constitutional Amendment Five (SCA 5) introduced by State Senator Joe Simitian would lower the amount of votes needed to pass a parcel tax from a super majority of 66.7 percent to 55 percent. This would overturn a portion of Proposition 13, a 1978 property tax reform initiative, which requires any special local tax to by 66.7 percent. In order for the state constitutional amendment to pass both chambers of the legislature must agree. on the change with a super majority of 66.7 percent.
State Senators Mark Leno, Jerry Hill and Fran Pavley introduced SCA 3, which is similar to the Simitian proposal.
Advocates of a parcel tax argue that voters who approved Proposition 30 in the 2012 general election, may be willing to support a measure to alleviate fiscal problems at local community college and K-12 districts. Opponents say it is fiscally irresponsible to go back to the voters for more money and that SWC should make due with what it has.
Levine, dean of the School Languages and Literature, disagrees. He said many districts have turned to parcel taxes since 2006. In the general election last fall, 25 parcel taxes were on the ballot in California. Of those, 16 were approved by voters, he said, including the state’s largest community college.
“We had a phone conference with Peter Goldstein, the vice chancellor of finance at City College of San Francisco, and we spoke to him for about 20 or so minutes,” said Levine. “It occurred to us, if we were doing some research, to go to the horse’s mouth and ask someone who has already tried it and get some lessons from him.”
Humberto Peraza, SWC governing board president, said he would like more information on the process.
“It is an interesting idea and I think we want to give all ideas due consideration,” he said. “ I would certainly give Levine’s idea (consideration), but would like to look at the details of what is being worked on.”
Academic Senate President Randy Beach said the college needs the extra revenue, but he does not know how the community would react to another tax on the ballot. He said there is a growing feeling on campus that the idea of a parcel tax should at least be looked at.
“There is no right time to ask people to pay more money,” said Beach.  “There doesn’t exist a right time for that. Before we start asking people to give us more money, we should make very sure that we are running an efficient ship.”
Faculty union president Eric Maag said the SCEA would be supportive of a parcel tax and does not believe that the administration would be against one. Lillian Leopold, chief public information officer, said the district has not discussed going out and creating a campaign to support a parcel tax.
Levine said the only way a parcel tax would make it to the ballot is if all constituency groups on campus support the idea.
“It might take work, it might be extremely complex, but who said something that is extremely valuable should be easy?” he said.
A parcel tax could be used to restore funding to academic programs, Levine said, some of which have been cut by 75 percent since 2002. Operational budgets have been starved for years, he said, and that is diminishing the quality of many programs that require supplies, technology or outside services. He referenced Einstein’s famous statement, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
“Let’s give a parcel tax serious look,” Levine said. “It might be the answer we need.”