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Dear Editor,
Your April 24 editorial about the difference of opinion between the school board and the city council was fascinating. Those two elected bodies differ on the need for a new grammar school for the Midtown and Transit Area and how to pay for it. The fascinating part was the council's reported reasons for balking: the school board didn't do long-term planning, and another school isn't needed yet.
From my perspective, that additional school is a necessary part of a whole system-wide plan to address many pressing school-related issues. For that reason alone, I'm inclined to support it. Whether it's needed tomorrow or 10 years from now, we need to start funding it now.
The council's claim that the board didn't do long-term planning seems flakey. It was the council that rezoned all those Midtown properties so high-density housing could move in. Furthermore, it was the council through its redevelopment agency (RDA) that is largely responsible for all that housing construction on Abel Street. They are also the ones that took away the extra property tax money that would go to the schools if not for city's RDA.
For 20 years the city council has used the state's "redevelopment" rules to suck money into the city that normally would be shared with Santa Clara County and the Milpitas Unified School District. Here's how it works. First, the council makes a finding that an area of town is "blighted." That area is called the "redevelopment area." When they
As you can imagine, property taxes on a bare piece of land go up ten-fold or more when houses are built on it, and all that extra tax money goes to the RDA.
Who knows how much money that is? We do know that the city council rezoned the Midtown Area for a much larger population and benefited financially from the arrangement. So, it would seem that they could be more generous in addressing the school board's concerns.
Rob Means
Yellowstone Avenue
