The Santa Monica-Malibu Council of PTAs supports Measure ES, a new parcel tax designed to permanently stabilize key funding to our SMMUSD schools.
Since 2002, the City of Santa Monica has paid District schools $12 million annually through the Master Facilities Use Agreement (MFUA), a partnership between the City and the District to allow school property to remain open after school and on weekends for use by the general community. SMMUSD has come to rely on this funding for teacher salaries, school property maintenance, and other uses.
Many municipalities across the country are struggling to balance their budgets after pandemic- and inflation-related revenue losses, and Santa Monica is no exception. Last year, the City of Santa Monica announced its budget Realignment Plan to address a $30 million budget deficit.
Despite years of advocacy by District parents to the Santa Monica City Council to keep the annual $12 million MFUA intact, the City is planning to eliminate the funding behind the MFUA in order to lower its deficit and balance the City budget.
Measure ES proposes the establishment of an annual $495 parcel tax assessed to landowners to replace the annual $12 million that the District will lose when the City begins its budget realignment process in 2027. Losing $12 million annually equates to the loss of one teacher per grade, per school, across our district.
The citizens behind the Measure ES ballot measure have been working for years to design public tax contributions to replace this funding. There is no guarantee that the City will decide to renew this funding when the Realignment Plan implementation begins next year, and as such, Santa Monicans want to guarantee, in advance, that no funding to the District will be lost, and that no interruption to funding will ever happen.
Tax revenue collected by Measure ES will be received and assessed by the Los Angeles County’s Assessor’s Office, and will be passed by the County to the City of Santa Monica to be delivered to SMMUSD. The City of Santa Monica, as overseen by the County Assessor’s Office, cannot use this tax revenue for any other purpose other than to provide SMMUSD with its designated tax revenue. The ballot measure proposes that the SMMUSD Board of Education establish a Measure ES oversight committee to ensure proper spending of the Measure ES funds. This oversight, according to the ballot measure, may be assigned to the District’s Financial Oversight Committee.
The SMMPTA has a searchable FAQ for parents to dive deep into learning more about this important ballot measure. The SMMPTA also published a study of Measure ES in May 2026 to analyze the measure and establish support for ES.
For more questions about the SMMPTA’s support of Measure ES, email the Legislative Chair of the SMMPTA at smmptalegislativeadvocacychair@gmail.com.