Depending on where they live, property owners in the Acalanes Union High School district already pay as many as eight different special taxes to supplement funding for education.

Now trustees of the Central Contra Costa district are asking voters to approve another one. Rather than put Measure T on a ballot during an election year with other races that generate high public interest, they have called a costly off-year special election for May 6, when voter turnout and opposition will likely be low.

Voters should reject Measure T, not just because district officials are trying with the election timing to put their thumbs on the scale, but also because of the lack of ballot transparency about the special school taxes property owners already pay.

Measure T would impose a new $130 parcel tax for district operations that would escalate each year with inflation and last for eight years. It would generate about $4.5 million annually for the district.

That would be on top of two permanent parcel taxes that voters previously approved, totaling $301 annually, and a separate property tax to repay school construction bonds that adds about another $300 for a home with an average assessed value of about $1 million.

And because Acalanes is just a high school district, property owners also pay supplemental taxes for one of the four K-8 feeder districts, in Moraga, Orinda, Lafayette or part of Walnut Creek. For those K-8 districts, residents pay parcel taxes for operations and separate taxes for bond measures for school construction.

For homeowners, the total for all the supplemental taxes for Acalanes and its feeder districts ranges from about $1,000 to about $2,300 annually for a home with an average assessed value of about $1 million. The total tax can be significantly more for more-recently purchased homes in the district, which can easily be assessed at $2 million or more.

Those taxes are on top of the annual base 1% property tax and supplemental city, county and special district taxes.

A tax bill for an Orinda property owner. Property owners in the Acalanes Union High School district already pay as many as eight different special taxes to supplement funding for education in the district and in one of four K-8 feeder districts, in Moraga, Orinda, Lafayette or part of Walnut Creek. 

In the grand scheme, the $130 Acalanes is seeking with Measure T is not a large addition, especially in the district of high-income households. But transparency and community representation through voter turnout matter.

None of the current supplemental taxes charged by Acalanes and its feeder districts are mentioned in the ballot wording from the district or in the voter guide’s impartial analysis from County Counsel Thomas Geiger.

Indeed, the district’s original ballot wording didn’t even disclose that the Measure T tax would increase annually with inflation. After a court challenge brought by concerned taxpayers, which the district opposed, a judge ordered Acalanes to include that information.

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In the same order, Judge Edward Weil ordered Geiger to correct inaccurate information about the current parcel taxes property owners pay to Acalanes, or to delete reference to the current taxes in his voter guide analysis. Rather than correct the information, Geiger chose to delete the reference to existing taxes altogether. So much for transparency.

Meanwhile, Acalanes trustees’ decision to hold an off-year special election not only ensures depressed voter turnout, it also means that the district alone must bear all the balloting costs. That roughly quadruples, adding about $800,000 to, the district’s cost for the election. It’s perplexing that the district is pleading for more money while carelessly spending what it has.

In sum, taxpayers in the district already pay substantial school taxes. The measure lacks transparency. And the timing will drive down voter turnout and drive up election costs. Voters and taxpayers deserve better. They should reject Measure T.