SOUTH PASADENA (CNS) – Voters in San Marino approved an extension to its parcel tax to increase education funding and voters in adjacent South Pasadena voted to extend and increase its parcel tax in vote-by-mail elections that concluded today.

Measure R in the San Marino Unified School District was approved 2,107- 832, 71.69 percent to 28.31 percent, surpassing the two-thirds majority needed. It will extend the existing $330 annual parcel tax for another six years. The tax was first implemented in 1991, and it has been renewed four times. It was set to expire June 30.

The district’s resolution calling for the election stated that “future funding for the district from the state of California and other sources is projected to be inadequate to provide the level of support to the district’s education programs which the citizens of the district expect.”

Measure S in the South Pasadena Unified School District was approved 4,441-1,614, 73.35 percent to 26.65 percent, surpassing the two-thirds majority needed. It will extend the district’s parcel tax and increase it by $98, to a total of $386, for five years.

District officials said the tax, which has been in place since 2009, funds 35 teaching and support positions “that would otherwise be eliminated, forcing increased class sizes and cuts to instructional programs.”

Both of the parcel tax elections were conducted by mail. According to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office, more than 10,000 ballots were sent to voters in the San Marino district, and about 16,600 were sent to voters in the South Pasadena district.

In a special election in the 32nd Senate District in eastern Los Angeles County, including Pomona, Assemblywoman Norma J. Torres, D-Pomona, led a field of six candidates with 43.6 percent of the vote with all 448 precincts reporting, according to figures released by the Secretary of State’s Office, and will face Republican Paul S. Leon, who was second with 26.4 percent, in a runoff May 14.

The special election was caused by the resignation of Democrat Gloria Negrete McLeod, who was elected to Congress in November. The victor will fill out the remainder of her term, which will end in November 2014.

The district is largely based in San Bernardino County.

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