District pursues $11 parcel tax

The opposing tax measure, proposed by and named after Pasadena Attorney Molley Munger, promises most of its revenue to the K-12 system and early childhood programs with no funding for the community college system.

Márquez said he was shocked the district’s proposed general obligation bond did not come back with the favorable results district officials hoped for.

Of the surveyed group, 67 percent of the West County sample favored the bond.  Sixty-two percent of the Central/South County participants favored the same initiative. East County also had a favorable rate of 62 percent.

Márquez, who serves in the West County area, said he is considering a specialized facilities bond only for CCC in the future.

“If a parcel tax does not come through districtwide, I can tell you without a doubt we will push a bond measure for our service area,” Márquez said. “We might have to wait but we need to give voters a chance to vote on the parcel tax.”

Henry prefers to go for a districtwide bond instead of a West County bond to help each of the campuses.

District Vice Chancellor of Administrative Services John al-Amin said more progress needs to be made with the existing 2006 Measure A+ Bond before county residents see a need for another bond.

“The community did not see it desirable to go for a general obligation bond due to our progress with the current (construction) projects,” he said.

Almost all of the $120 million 2002 Measure A Bond has been spent and about one-third of the 2006 bond of $280 million has been used up, al-Amin said. Nearly half of the 2006 bond funds have been allocated to construction projects across the district.

The bond is necessary to complete phases 2 and 3 and begin parts of phase 4 of each college’s Facilities Master Plan, district Chief Facilities Planner Ray Pyle said.

The plan calls for new buildings and seismic retrofitting at each of the three colleges, especially CCC, which lies on the active Hayward Fault.

“If the economy is better, we’ll have a better chance (at a bond) in 2014,” Pyle said.

He said the state needs to fund construction.

“If the state will put a school construction bond on the statewide ballot, we will have a better chance to leverage a state bond with a local bond.”