Santa Monica Voters Reject School Tax, Putting $12 Million Payment in Doubt

The city's budget forecast already assumes its payment to Santa Monica-Malibu Unified ends when the contract expires June 30, 2027.

For years, Santa Monica's City Hall has sent its public schools about $12 million a year under a contract with a name only a lawyer could love: the Master Facilities Use Agreement.

Voters just declined to pick up that bill themselves. Measure ES was the parcel tax residents petitioned onto the ballot for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. It was losing 20,014 votes to 18,098, the Santa Monica Daily Press reported Wednesday, and only a few hundred ballots are left to count. Now the City Council has to choose: end the payment, or find $12 million somewhere else.

The figure that frames that choice is smaller than $12 million. In its one-year budget update on Oct. 15, the city put its operating gap at $4.3 million, leaving out capital spending. It also said it's on track to balance the General Fund by July 1, 2027.

That forecast already counts on the school payment ending. Keep writing the check, the Santa Monica Daily Press reported, and a recurring gap of about $12 million comes back. That's nearly three times the shortfall the city reported.

City Hall has also been spending savings. It budgeted a $34 million reserve draw for 2025-26 and ended up using $26.7 million, the city said.

ES would have covered the bill with a tax of $495 a year on each taxable parcel. The tax would have risen with inflation, had no end date and given breaks to qualifying seniors, nonprofits and a few others, according to the measure's text on the city's election page. Every dollar would have gone to the district. The text names the agreement expiring June 30, 2027, as the one city payment the tax would replace.

This fight didn't start with this ballot. The measure's authors wrote that the agreement's money has flowed since 2005, and that losing it would be "devastating" for the district.

City Hall had seen this coming. Its own October 2025 poll of 499 voters tested 10 things new tax money might pay for, and the school agreement finished 10th, at 34%, the Daily Press reported. Back in January, staff shelved the council's own version, a $540-a-parcel tax that needed a two-thirds supermajority.

Residents then gathered 7,711 valid signatures for ES, and going the petition route dropped the bar to a simple majority, the Daily Press reported. It didn't clear that either.

Supporters included the teachers union, the Chamber of Commerce, the district's PTAs and Mayor Caroline Torosis. They warned that City Hall's money troubles left the $12 million exposed. Neighborhood groups including Northeast Neighbors and the Pico Neighborhood Association called ES "a Santa Monica City tax disguised as a school tax," the Daily Press reported.

The district has the most to lose. Supporters say the payment makes up about 7% of its main operating revenue, the Daily Press reported. Even with the city's check arriving, the district had already forecast annual deficits between $9 million and $12 million through the 2028-29 school year.

Board President Alicia Mignano said in a statement reported by the Daily Press that the district "respects the voice of Santa Monica voters and the democratic process" and will look at its options, including working with the city.

Another check isn't on the table. About $18 million a year flows to the district through a separate facilities agreement tied to Measures YY and GS, and it doesn't expire until June 30, 2038, the Daily Press reported.

The results are due to be certified Nov. 27. The council already ordered the homework: in September it voted 6-0 to send the city manager to bargain over a successor deal. Members also asked for a list of "the trade-offs that we will have to make if Measure ES does not pass" by a March budget study session, the Daily Press reported.

Staff put it in writing in October that the city planned to end the payment if ES lost. The agreement expires June 30, 2027, and the city's next two-year budget starts the following morning.

Source: smdp.com, retrieved November 12, 2026. Other sources: santamonica.gov, santamonica.gov (2).