Backers of Tax in Capistrano Unified Say It Will Be Close

Backers of a measure on the ballot Tuesday that would raise property taxes in the Capistrano Unified School District are sure that voters in bedroom communities of southern Orange County know the value of an education.

They are just afraid that many of them, especially those who commute long distances to work, will not make it home in time to cast their votes on the measure aimed at raising money to build new schools and refurbish old ones.

“I just get nervous that people will forget and assume that their neighbors’ support or their spouse’s support will take care of the ‘yes’ vote,” said Sheila Benecke, chairwoman of the political action committee formed to campaign for the measure.

“It is going to be tight,” Benecke said. “I think the votes are there, but the fear I have is that people will say, ‘Oh, I wanted to do this, but I forgot,’ or they won’t get back to town on time, (and) we will have ‘yes’ voters who won’t show up to vote.”

Special-Tax District

The measure would make all of Capistrano Unified a special-tax district to raise funds for new school construction in the fast-growing area. Creation of such a district--known as a Mello-Roos district--requires approval of two-thirds of the voters. Very few localities in the state have given a two-thirds vote to such proposals in recent years.

If the measure passes, it would raise property taxes $100 a year on existing single-family homes, and $60 a year on existing condominiums, apartments and mobile homes. Owners of single-family homes built after the election would pay $200 more a year, and owners of new townhouses, mobile homes and apartments would pay $120 a year. Senior citizens would be exempt from the new taxes.

Existing commercial and industrial buildings would be assessed 6 cents more per square foot in taxes, with new buildings being assessed 12 cents more.

The election would raise $85 million over 25 years and would enable the district to build three elementary schools, a junior high school and part of a high school.

Overcrowding Problem

Capistrano Unified officials said they put the measure on the ballot because the district has a severe overcrowding problem that will only get worse because of the rapid rate of new-home development in southern Orange County, where most of the county’s undeveloped land is concentrated. Capistrano Unified Supt. Jerome R. Thornsley said the district’s enrollment is expected to grow by 7,000 students by 1992.

The campaign for the measure has been targeted to key voters in the sprawling school district, which stretches from Laguna Niguel to the San Diego County line and includes the cities of San Clemente, Dana Point, Mission Viejo, San Juan Capistrano, and the communities of Rancho Santa Margarita and Capistrano Beach.

Benecke said there are 94,000 registered voters in the district but that campaign organizers are being careful only to send out literature to those most likely to vote, particularly those who voted in the last election.

“We certainly don’t have the funds to communicate with all these (94,000) voters by mail,” she said.

Benecke said the committee, which has enlisted the help of a political consulting firm, has so far spent about $50,000, money that has been raised through donations from parents, most of which has been collected by mail solicitations. “We spend only as we raise it,” she said.

The most recent effort to raise taxes for schools in Orange County went down to defeat when voters by a ratio of 3 to 1 rejected Westminster School District’s proposed $1.4 million tax levy on March 7. Westminster’s Measure A would have raised $100 per property owner and $200 per business to repair the financially strapped district’s aging facilities and restore budgets cuts. The levy would have expired in 10 years.

Although there have been other Mello-Roos special taxing districts created in Orange County, including some for housing developments within Capistrano Unified, Tuesday’s election will be Orange County’s first for a school district. The Westminster district measure would have raised money directly for the district’s general fund, not through creation of a special district empowered to issue bonds as Capistrano Unified would be.

Thornsley said a few other such elections have been successful in other parts of the state. He said the Elk Grove School District in north-central California lost a Mello-Roos election the first time around but got approval of two-thirds of its voters within the last year.

Thornsley said no organized opposition to the measure has surfaced so far, but he added that he fears some voters will see a ‘no’ vote on the measure as a way to stop the areas’s fast growth.

“There are some people (in the Capistrano district) against growth,” he said. “Some people think that if we don’t get the funds, the growth will stop. That’s erroneous. The people will still come.”

Both Benecke and Thornsley say they are counting on parents in the generally affluent district to make the connection between quality education and adequate classroom space, which requires more money than is currently available.

“The educational level and sophistication of our parents is quite high,” Thornsley said. “They know firsthand the value of an education--that it’s not just an expenditure, but an investment.”