Tax Renewal on P.V. Estates Ballot

Palos Verdes Estates voters on April 8 will be asked to decide whether to renew a special property tax that pays for such things as street and park maintenance.

The tax measure, Proposition B on the ballot, requires a two-thirds vote for a four-year renewal. It was first enacted it 1980.

In the same election, three City Council incumbents--Mayor James H. Kinney, Mayor Pro Tem Ruth Gralow and Councilman Edward Ritscher--are running unopposed.

Under the tax renewal proposal, the levy, currently $82 for each parcel of property, will be reduced to $74 in 1986-87 and will be increased in the three subsequent fiscal years, ending in 1990, to $77, $81 and $84.

According to the city, the tax revenue pays all costs for street sweeping, tree and shrub maintenance and irrigation improvements and part of the cost for upkeep of open space, medians and plazas, as well as street and flood control maintenance.

The city’s five council members, in an ballot argument in favor of the proposition, said that because federal and state money to local government is decreasing, cities “must fund their own services at levels approved by their citizens.”

Officials said the special tax is necessary because the city is limited in how much property tax it may collect, and there is little sales tax revenue because of the limited commercial activity in the city.

There have been no arguments filed against Proposition B. At a public hearing in January, the measure was criticized by some apartment house owners who objected to the proposal to tax rental units as individual parcels beginning in 1986-87. Apartment buildings are now taxed as single parcels.

Proposition B carried by large margins the first two times it was on the ballot, city officials said. Initially a two-year measure, it was extended four years in 1982.