California Democratic state Senator Mark Leno plans to introduce a constitutional amendment on Monday that will make it easier to pass local taxes for schools.
The amendment would allow voters to pass school parcel taxes with a 55-percent vote instead of the two-thirds vote required by Proposition 13.
Jon Coupal with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association says the legislation isn’t surprising given that Democrats now hold a supermajority in the legislature.
“These are the proposals that were introduced in previous years. I think we’re going to see more and more of them, and the question is will our current political structure be able to restrain itself from going for as much money as possible and we have our doubts.”
Coupal also says voters approved 15 of 25 parcel taxes on the November ballot so a constitutional amendment is unnecessary.
Senator Leno said in a statement that a change in law would give voters the power to make decisions about public education at the local level.