The San Mateo County Community College District will make history in June if  district voters pass a $34 parcel tax. It will be the first time, as far as anyone can tell, that one of the state’s 72 districts will have approved such a measure. Other districts will be waiting and watching.

It’s a sign of desperate times that the board of trustees decided to venture into what has been the province of K-12 districts. But, on a positive note, it’s an indication of the public’s growing recognition of the importance of community colleges – and their plight – that trustees are confident the ballot measure will pass. District spokeswoman Barbara Christensen said that polling indicates about 73 percent of likely voters favor the tax. But with a 3-4 percent margin of error, there’s also no room for confidence.

Like all community colleges in California, San Mateo District’s three colleges – Skyline College, the College of San Mateo, and Canada College – have been walloped by state budget cuts. The district’s budget this year of $90 million is down $18 million from two years ago ($4 million of the loss was tied up with investments the county lost when  Lehman Brothers went bankrupt.)

Trustees anticipate an additional $7.3 million cut next year. Despite a 15 percent reduction in its workforce, including adjunct professors, enrollment was up 8 percent this year to 45,000 individual students. Contributing to this were decisions by UC and CSU to scale back admissions and delay transfers from community colleges.  The end result: a wait list for courses of 14,000 names (Some students were on more than one list.).

With 200,000 parcels in the county, the parcel tax would raise $6 million to $7 million per year, enough to blunt next year’s projected cut. The board is committed to restoring classes that have been eliminated, with the focus on the district’s core mission: preparing students to transfer to a four-year university, training workers and helping students needing remedial help to prepare for college work.

The parcel tax would expire in four years – the least time I’ve seen for such a tax. I wouldn’t expect community college’ fortunes will have changed by then, but there’s always hope.