Vote on school parcel tax won’t make November ballot

Vote on school parcel tax won’t make November ballot By John Loesing Acorn Staff Writer

If a vote were taken today, it’s unlikely an annual $170 parcel tax for Las Virgenes Unified School District (LVUSD) would pass, according to a recent survey, but voters would be inclined to support a smaller tax.

School officials said delaying the vote until next March gives the measure a greater chance of passing.

The Las Virgenes Board of Education decided last week to keep the tax measure off the Nov. 4 ballot, when regular school elections are usually conducted. In the March Democratic primary, voters are more likely to support the tax, the survey noted.

LVUSD cut $1.3 million from its $77 million budget and officials warned that more reductions might be coming next year unless a parcel tax—an assessment on local property—is approved.

"The board sees the urgency in this parcel tax and the wisdom in taking more time to help the community understand its importance," said Terilyn Finders, school board president.

As it stands now, voters see other more pressing issues in front of them than a school tax.

In a telephone survey of 406 residents living in LVUSD, traffic and development were listed ahead of education as the most important problems.

"Voters do not sense an impending crisis in the schools," said Charles Heath, a private consultant who directed the survey. "The traffic they deal with is more important."

The survey took place between July 10 and 16.

While 70 percent of respondents said the school district was doing a good or excellent job overall, only 34 percent said LVUSD was handling its finances well. But Heath pointed out, "These (responses) are generally influenced by the feeling that tax dollars are being wasted in Sacramento."

Only 45 percent said they’d be willing to support a $170 (per year) parcel tax, but almost 60 percent would favor a $75 tax. "We’re on the cusp of a successful parcel tax at $75," Heath said.

The parcel tax needs 66.6 percent of the vote to pass. The election will cost about $110,000 compared to $10,000 if it were held in November.

Proposition K, a $150 parcel tax put before the voters in 1996, lost by a mere 88 votes. The same tax narrowly missed again a year later.

Recently, school taxes have had mixed results.

The Palos Verdes school district past a parcel tax in June, but voters said no to a tax in Manhattan Beach.

Voters in Malibu and Santa Monica recently passed Measure S, a hotly debated parcel tax that will pump $6.2 million a year for six years into the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. The measure got 67.6 percent approval, 1 percent over the required two-thirds majority.

Finders said the voters in Las Virgenes would be more sympathetic to a tax in March after seeing the effects of the budget cutbacks. By then, fallout from the state’s $38 billion deficit will have made a large impact, she said.

The extra time also gives LVUSD an opportunity to educate the public about the need for the tax and to mobilize pro-tax forces.

"We feel that local funding through local taxes is the only solution we have in front of us," said Dave Moorman of Citizens for Preserving Quality Education, a group supporting the tax.

To generate $4 million a year—the amount that LVUSD officials said the district needs—the tax would have to be at least $150 per parcel. The $75 annual assessment that voters favored in the survey would provide only $2 million a year.

Officials warned that with the smaller tax, program cuts would still be necessary.

The majority of survey respondents said they’d like the tax money to pay for classroom supplies and class-size reduction. "People want this to go to the core issues: textbooks, teachers, keeping class sizes small," Heath said.

Respondents rated teachers as the most important personnel in the district.

LVUSD includes about 22,000 parcels, but some homeowners, such as senior citizens, would be exempt from the tax.

Opponents of the school parcel tax say it’s regressive and that the owner of a $1 million home would pay the same amount as the owner of a $300,000 home. Opponents also say residents are still burdened by Measure R, the school bond of 1998.

The new parcel tax would likely last for five years. Voters are reluctant to pass permanet parcel taxes.