Voters rejected Proposition J, a parcel-tax to raise revenue for San Diego city schools. The measure needed a two-thirds vote to pass; it garnered just under 50 percent.
San Diego Unified School District officials called Prop. J an “emergency tax” that would have levied fees on property owners in the City of San Diego over the next five years.
"Never had a chance," said John Nienstedt, a San Diego pollster.
San Diego Unified School Board President Richard Barrera said the defeat of Prop. J means big cuts for the district.
"We are going to be making cuts. There is no way to avoid that. We are going to have to get together as a new board and do what we've done the past couple of years, which is ... push, push, push to try and keep the cuts as far away from the students as possible," he said.
The money raised would have gone directly into the school district to help soften the blow of future state cuts to education.
Under the measure, homeowners would have paid about $98 parcel tax every year. Owners of apartment or condominium complexes would have paid $60 per unit, owners of commercial and industrial properties $450 a year.
Together that would have raised about $50 million annually for the district.
That money would have helped offset an estimated $141 million deficit on next year's $1.1 billion budget.
