Stanton : Fire Service Assessment Approved as Ballot Issue

Property owners will go to the polls Aug. 6 to decide whether they want to continue paying a special property tax for fire protection and prevention.

The City Council last week decided to place the tax-override issue on the ballot. If approved, houses will be assessed $24 a year, mobile homes $18, commercial and industrial properties $300 an acre or partial acre, and vacant land $75 an acre.

The measure will be identical to one passed two years ago, Deputy City Clerk Cleo Hanson said. She estimated the election will cost more than $10,000.

In the 1984 general election, almost 11,000 voters cast ballots. Figures were not available for the previous special election, but “there was quite a large turnout,” Hanson said.

Tax overrides are permitted under Proposition 13, but must be approved by two-thirds of the voters subject to the tax. Stanton voters have approved overrides twice since the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978.

Mayor Jean Siriani and Councilman Sal Sapien voted against the ballot measure, saying the council is responsible for developing new sources of revenue. They said they would have preferred a council-approved utility-users’ tax, spread out among businesses and households with annual incomes of more than $10,000.

The city is facing a deficit of several hundred thousand dollars.

Voting to place the tax override on the ballot were council members Mike Pace and Martha Weishaupt and Vice Mayor Jim Hayes.