West Sonoma County tax measures trailing early; Measure A likely to fail

A contentious proposal to raise taxes on hotels and vacation rentals to support a cash-strapped fire district and schools in west Sonoma County was trailing in early results Tuesday night.

With nearly 12,000 votes counted, Measure B had received muted support from west county voters. It led with 60% majority, well below the two-thirds threshold needed to pass. Passage would boost the tax on hotel beds and vacation rentals from 12% to 16% in west Sonoma County, raising an estimated $2.7 million annually.

Measure A, a parcel tax that would delay the consolidation of school campuses in the West Sonoma County Union High School District, appeared likely to fail Tuesday night, with a 54% majority that was 12 percentage points less than the required two-thirds majority to pass.

Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, who spearheaded the creation of Measure B, including the addition of schools as recipients of its revenue, said early results weren’t definitive enough to predict an outcome on the tourism tax.

“The gap could widen, it could narrow. It’s hard to say at this point,” she said.

Crista Luedtke, one of the leaders of the campaign opposing Measure B, expressed more optimism about the outcome breaking their way.

“I certainly would have loved a bigger margin, (but) if early voting is any indicator, I think we’ve held our ground,” she said.

If both measures fail, the region’s high school district would face an immediate reckoning with a yawning budget deficit that has prompted officials to explore consolidating its three high schools onto two campuses. Forestville’s and Sebastopol’s high schools likely would be combined on the Sebastopol campus, with the alternative high school and district offices shifting to Forestville.

Measure B, which stirred up dueling campaigns in the western region of the county, also influences the timeline in which the budget-stretched Bodega Bay Fire District will be able to consolidate with the Sonoma County Fire District for greater financial stability.

The mail-ballot election encompassed a broad swath of west Sonoma County, including residents of both the Bodega Bay Fire District and the West Sonoma County Union High School District. More than 37,000 voters were eligible to participate, and turnout after the initial count Tuesday night stood at 32%, though that percentage will increase as more votes are counted.

About 11,000 ballots were placed in drop boxes or mailed to the office of the county registrar in time to be signature-checked and verified by Election Day, and other people dropped off ballots or voted at their assigned polling place Tuesday. Deva Proto, Sonoma County registrar of voters, said she expected that 50%-60% of eligible voters might cast a ballot in the election.

Diane Whitney, who stopped by the Sebastopol Center for the Arts to cast her vote in the afternoon, said she was frustrated by the idea of adding a parcel tax for the school district onto what she already pays.

“They’ve got to get a more reliable way of funding,” she said. “It’s crazy that schools have to beg for money every few months.”

The inclusion of schools as recipients of Measure B revenue dissuaded Whitney from supporting it, too.

“I would have voted for it, if it was all going to fire and rescue,” she said.

Over at the Forestville Fire Department, Jim Strumpf stopped by to drop off his ballot with a different perspective. He was convinced of the merits of both proposals early on, he said.

Though he and his wife don’t have kids attending El Molino High School, Strumpf said, they have friends who do. He doesn’t want to see the school close, which remains a possibility with consolidation still on the table in the coming years.

“It was shocking to hear they were thinking about getting rid of it,” Strumpf said.

For the West Sonoma County Union High School District, revenue from either of the measures would serve as bridge funding while leaders continue to work out a long-term resolution to the growing budget deficit. The school district serves about 1,900 students from the central Sonoma Coast to Sebastopol.

Many supporters of the tax measures pin hopes for a solution to the school district’s budget problems on a unification study conducted by the Sonoma County Office of Education. Expected to be complete sometime in 2022, the study will examine the potential merits of the high school district unifying with one or more of its 10 feeder elementary districts.

“It gives us the opportunity to plan that consolidating and redistricting with some purpose and not just out of a crisis response,” said Debbie Ramirez, who chaired the Yes on A campaign. She could not be reached for comment after early voting results were released Tuesday night.

Either one of the tax measures passing would push school consolidation back until at least the 2022-23 school year, according to a resolution passed by the school board in December. Both measures passing would have pushed consolidation back at least another additional year.

For the two fire districts serving the west county, however, consolidation is a goal. It’s a solution aimed at the Bodega Bay Fire District in particular, which has been increasingly burdened by emergency calls from visitors and tourists who don’t pay the property tax that funds its budget.

“(Measure B) is a very effective tool to be able to close that gap and ensure we have the right amount of paramedic service to serve those rural communities and the huge number of people that visit them,” said Chief Mark Heine with the Sonoma County Fire District. Bodega Bay Fire would be absorbed into his district with help from Measure B funds.

Opponents of Measure B, mostly hoteliers and other tourist-dependent business owners, have said they want to find other solutions to support paramedics. But they said they weren’t given the chance to be involved with crafting the measure that ended up on the ballot.

“We just feel the measure is the wrong tax at the wrong time,” Luedtke said.

Both the Yes and No on Measure B campaigns spent weeks before the election trying to get the word out to voters about what they saw as most at stake in the vote.

You can reach Staff Writers Kaylee Tornay at 707-521-5250 or kaylee.tornay@pressdemocrat.com and Andrew Graham at 707-526-8667 or andrew.graham@pressdemocrat.com.