West Contra Costa voters to weigh renewing $10 million school tax

RICHMOND — A decades-old tax that has funded library, sports, and counseling programs across the West Contra Costa Unified School District will be on the ballot again this November as Measure V.

Advocates say the dollars are vital for keeping education-related and sports services going, but others argue the district has proven too irresponsible to be trusted with oversight of the money.

First approved by voters in 2004 and renewed three times since, the parcel tax measure has charged residential and commercial property owners 7.2 cents per square foot of building space for more than two decades. The owner of a 1,770-square-foot home, the median size in Contra Costa County according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, would continue to pay about $127 per year under the tax.

The tax has raised about $10 million annually, according to the district. Of that total, about $2 million goes toward charter schools and the other $8 million supports athletic programming, libraries and counseling across the district’s campuses.

Voters will be asked to renew the tax again in November, with no increases to the rate for another nine years. Without renewal, the tax will expire June 30, 2027.

In July, Trustee Leslie Reckler spoke before the Board of Education in support of the measure.

“Even though you’re hearing in the press there’s record funding in education, that is true, but it’s supporting the ecosystem around education,” she said.

“These are all restricted funding streams that are not giving us what we need to run our daily operations. And with what we’re getting, the cost is outpacing what we’re getting from the state, and that’s the bottom line.”

But Measure V opponents, the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association, argue the district cannot be trusted to responsibly manage the funds.

“This district doesn’t handle money very well and the more you give it the more it’ll waste,” Contra Costa Taxpayer Association President Marc Joffe told the Bay Area News Group.

West Contra Costa Unified has long struggled financially. Then known as the Richmond School District, it was the first in the state to declare bankruptcy in 1991, and spent the next 21 years repaying a $28.5 million state loan.

In more recent history, the district has been required to cut tens of millions of dollars from its budget to avoid losing budget decision making power to the Contra Costa County Office of Education or the state.

Trustees agreed to reduce the budget by $127.1 million by fiscal year 2027-28 in a fiscal solvency plan adopted in February. That promise was partly met by cutting more than 300 staff positions, merging two schools and borrowing from other funds. A previous fiscal solvency plan called for $32.7 million in reductions to be made between the 2024-25 and 2026-27 school years.

District officials have blamed its challenging financial picture on dipping enrollment and a state education funding model that hasn’t kept up with the cost of business.

The Contra Costa Taxpayers Association argues layoffs and other cuts occur because officials caved to pressure from organized labor.

Joffe also noted that the state will be directing $128 billion towards education, a historic level of funding approved in the latest state budget.

That said, the United Teachers of Richmond, a union representing about 1,400 educators, counselors, nurses, speech pathologists and psychologists, is advocating for Measure V.

Union President Francisco Ortiz said district leadership, specifically Executive Business Services Director Jeff Carter, have proven to be transparent and collaborative, improving working relations between the union and the district office.

“I believe we are helping the district move toward investing wisely in our students today because they only get one shot at their education,” Ortiz said.

Without the tax revenue, additional budget cuts and changes to contract language for some positions that only exist in the district as long as the parcel tax is in place would likely be necessary, district leadership told the Board of Education in July.

The union and district leadership had been locked in an intense battle over a new contract in 2025, leading to a multi-day strike in December 2025. By the end of negotiations, the parties agreed to a 10% salary increase split over two years, 100% employer paid healthcare by June 2027, bonuses to attract and retain employees and other workplace condition improvements.

The district was warned by a polling consultant firm in a July presentation to the Board of Education to be cautious when asking voters to renew the tax.

Across the region, local voters have recently proved to be apprehensive about backing similar tax measures.

In June, voters rejected a bond and parcel tax measure that would have increased funding to the Contra Costa Community College District, the Oakley Union Elementary School District, the Walnut Creek School District, a county-wide medical system, and an El Cerrito library project.

But fiscal conservatism isn’t universal across the county: Moraga and Lafayette voters approved new revenue for their school districts during that same June election.

Come this November election, Ortiz is hopeful for a different outcome because of what he described as a broad coalition of Measure V supporters. Among them are the West Contra Costa chapter of the League of Women Voters, local elected officials, and the Contra Costa Democratic Club.

“I know that with rising costs and affordability, especially in one of the most expensive areas in the entire world, asking for more money would be a hard lift,” Ortiz said.

“We really want to ensure voters know this will be detrimental to our schools if we’re not able to renew the funding we’ve been able to depend on for the last 22 years.”