Measure M raises $10 million a year and puts a special-education label on it. Read the measure and look for the sentence that says the district has to keep spending its own money on special education.
Measure M is written like a bait and switch. The ballot says special education. The measure says nothing about keeping the district's own money there. As the $10 million comes in, the board can move its own money out — to anything it wants. One sentence would have made this money for students. They left it out.
No independent citizens' committee. No end date — the tax runs "until amended or repealed by voters," with increases every year. No requirement to balance a budget or fix anything. The superintendent writes a report and hands it to the board that spends the money. That's the entire oversight structure.
The district's own September plan started from a $229 million deficit and still misses the reserve state law requires by $25 million every year. It balances only by counting one-time money as ongoing and leaning on a labor deal put on hold, because it was potentially illegal. The state's fiscal crisis chief called it "Monopoly money." Measure M isn't even in the plan.
Since 2015, Sacramento City Unified has lost 7,000 students and added 38 employees. Its spending is up more than $240 million. The board just approved a retiree-fund deal on the consent agenda with no price tag — and the county had to stop it. That's not a district that needs $10 million with no strings. That's a district that needs to explain where the money went.