School Tax Measure to Go on Ballot

San Diego voters will be asked in June to approve higher property taxes for school construction and renovation in the San Diego Unified School District, and the ballot measure will list each school targeted for assistance so that residents within district boundaries will know where their extra taxes will go.

The school board approved the ballot plan Tuesday that could raise as much as $25 million annually through the year 2003. A master plan adopted last year for capital needs through the year 2000 would cost about $350 million to fund completely, and the tax could raise about half that amount.

“Many people that I’ve talked to are excited that they can now do something very tangible for schools,” said board chairman Dorothy Smith, referring to efforts by the district to tap support for public education that officials sense among residents.

“This proposal would help resolve problems (of overcrowding and aged schools) in all areas of the district,” board member Jim Roache said.

Tax Increase

Under the proposal, a simple majority of voters will be asked to approve raising the school property tax to a maximum of 9.575 cents per $100 assessed valuation from the current 2.25 cents.

Should the 9.575-cent figure be approved, the schools’ portion of the county’s property tax on a $100,000 home could rise to $95.75, from the current $22.50, depending on the final dollar amount of bonds to be sold in order to build the planned facilities.

The 2.25-cent levy stems from voter approval in 1974 of a proposition allowing the district to sell revenue bonds to build 21 schools. At the time, the voter approval permitted the district to levy a rate up to 38.3 cents per $100 assessed valuation through the year 2003.

But after the 1978 passage of Proposition 13, which limited property taxes, the maximum levy dropped to the 9.575-cent level. The district subsequently needed only 2.25 cents of that maximum to pay off the bonds for the 21 schools.

Normally, because of Proposition 13, the district would have to seek two-thirds approval from voters for additional property taxes. But a bill passed this year by the state Legislature specifically for the district allows a simple majority vote by framing the ballot measure as a reinstatement of taxing authority granted in 1974 and not as a new tax.

Should a simple majority approve the measure, the district would seek legal clarification from the courts to determine if the bill met the state’s constitutional limits as contained in Proposition 13 and in the Gann proposition of 1980 that limits government appropriations statewide.

Schools Supt. Tom Payzant estimated that $145 million would be needed through bond sales to finance the planned construction. That would require raising the property tax limit to about 7.7 cents per $100, or $77 per $100,000 assessed valuation. Payzant said the tax would begin in 1992, peak in 1994, then gradually decline until the bonds were paid off in 2003.

Schools to be built would be: Challenger Junior High and Hage Elementary in Mira Mesa; Mira Mesa/Scripps Ranch No. 2 High, Scripps Ranch No. 3 Elementary and Scripps Ranch No. 4 Elementary, all in Scripps Ranch; Nye Elementary in Valencia Park; a new school of creative and performing arts in Paradise Hills, and Tierrasanta No. 5 Elementary in Tierrasanta.

Reconstruction of existing facilities would be made at: Adams Elementary, Central Elementary, Edison Elementary and Euclid Elementary in the mid-city area; Washington Elementary downtown; Lowell Elementary and Bandini Elementary in Logan Heights, and O’Farrell Junior High in Encanto.

Additions to existing facilities, mostly as new science labs, would be made at: DePortola Middle School and Serra High in Tierrasanta; Point Loma High; Patrick Henry High in San Carlos; Hoover High in the mid-city area; Kearny High in Kearny Mesa; La Jolla High; Madison High in Clairemont; Morse High in Encanto, and University City High.

Edward D. Kissane, vice president and general manager of the Sheraton Harbor Island Hotel, will head a community campaign to garner support for the measure.