Ravenswood Parcel Tax Poised to Pass

Menlo Park residents who live in the Ravenswood City School District may soon pay $98 more every year in taxes to fund art and music classes in the district.

As of 8:33 p.m. Tuesday, 68 percent of residents had voted yes on the special parcel tax known as Measure B, with 31 percent against it. The measure needs a yes vote from two-thirds of voters in the district to pass.

David Tom, San Mateo County elections manager, said about 95 percent of the ballots would be tallied Tuesday night, and the final results would be completely tallied on Wednesday morning.

“Law allows us to open ballots seven days before Election Day, so we've been working for the past 20 days," Tom said, noting that this special election was more efficient than a regular one.

During a normal election, San Mateo County tallies votes that arrive via two separate systems, electronic votes and mail in ballots on paper.  Only mail in ballots were accepted for this election, which was the first of its kind in the county, Tom said. 

“We don't have to wait for results to come in from the precincts, so it's faster,” Tom said.

There are 9,601 people registered to vote in the school district, while 341,303 are registered to vote in this special election countywide, according to Tom.  As of 8:30 p.m., 1,053 voters had indicated yes or no on Measure B.

A yes vote would additionally enable the district to push the expiration date of the current parcel tax, Measure M, to 2018, instead of 2014, bringing the total amount each property owner would pay to $196.

The parcel tax would appear on homeowners’ property tax bills and would be collected by the San Mateo County Treasurer-Tax Collector along with regular property taxes, starting July 1. Senior citizens, who are 65 or older, can apply for an exemption from the parcel tax.

A no vote on Measure B would prevent the new parcel tax from being collected, but would have no affect on the current parcel tax. 

Ravenswood City School district staff declined to be interviewed about the specifics of the measure for this article, but information on the district website says the funding would be directed to teacher salaries and special programs that supplement a child's education.