San Diego educators’ hopes to close a $140 million city schools budget gap were defeated at the polls on Tuesday.
With 100 percent of precincts reporting, the vote was nearly dead even, with 94,783 votes cast against it and 94,215 in support of it. However, the measure requires a two-thirds majority for passage.
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Proposition J would have provided $50 million a year for five years to help the floundering district, which made dramatic cuts in recent years as well. Voters however, opposed the plan to charge single-family homeowners a parcel tax of $98 --- business owners would have paid an even steeper price. Supporter argued that passage of the measure would have insulated the local district from the state's seemingly annual budget problems.
