A proposed parcel tax hopes to bring funds to the De Anza-Foothill College District, said De Anza College President Brian Murphy. The plans for the parcel tax are still in the early stages. Currently, the school board is interested in conducting a poll to see how voters will respond, said Murphy.

In a memo sent from Interim Chancellor Mike Brandy and Vice Chancellor of Business Services Andy Dunn to the Board of Trustees, a parcel tax is a flat fee imposed on each parcel of land in the district, most often for a limited duration of four to six years.

According to the minutes from De Anza’s school board meeting, the Board last Monday sent a request for consultants to conduct a feasibility study of the parcel tax. This will allow the Board to get an sample response to the proposed parcel tax because there are times to go to the community for fundraising, and “we need to know if this is it,” Murphy said.

According to the memo, “while the district is in the process of making the necessary and painful reductions in its budget we know that these reductions directly affect our goals of access and success.” A solution to this would be to raise money by requesting voters to approve a parcel tax. “An estimated budget of $30,000 to $35,000 will be incurred to hire a political consultant to assist with developing messages and polling questions, and to pay for the poll.”

The memo also indicated that it is unlikely that a parcel tax could fully restore the state cuts. However, such a tax could restore student programs and services that would otherwise have to be cut. The tax will be locally collected and controlled, said Dunn.

The planning of the parcel tax “is in the initial stage,” Dunn said. The board still has to find a polling consultant and approve him or her before anything else can progress, Dunn said.

Regarding the funds spent on this proposed tax amidst the financial crisis, the Board thinks it is safe to invest money on a campaign to pass the tax, Student Trustee Isabella Barrientos Vargas said. Schools are the safest thing in our current economy, “so investing money into the system when so many people from the workforce are going back to school is important,” Vargas said.

A similar measure was passed on June 6, 2006, when a $490.8 million bond, according to the De Anza College Web site, would “upgrade electrical, heating, ventilation systems, fire/seismic safety; repair leaky roofs; improve disabled Proxy-Connection: keep-aliveCache-Control: max-Proxy-Connection: keep-aliveCache-Control: max-age=0

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cess; and repair/expand classrooms for nurses/paramedics” among other things. The passing of the parcel tax will allow for programs that would otherwise be cut to remain.