Beverly Hills School Tax Falls Six Votes Short

A tax that proponents said would prevent Beverly Hills schools from slipping into mediocrity fell six votes short of passage, election officials said Monday.

Semiofficial results show that the parcel tax measure on the June 5 ballot collected 6,814 yes votes, or 66.6%, said Marcia Ventura, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder’s office. Votes against the proposed tax numbered 3,416, or 33.39%. The levy needed approval by two-thirds of the voters--or 6,820--to take effect.

All ballots cast on the tax measure have been counted, Ventura said. But the county will not certify the results until June 26, when all absentee, write-in and problem ballots countywide have been tabulated, she said. The secretary of state then certifies the results, making them official.

With the margin so slim, supporters of the tax said they would request a recount. “We’ll try every legal effort to review the balloting of those votes counted, to see whether or not we can reverse the results,” said Bernard Nebenzahl, co-chairman of the Yes on Schools Committee. “I’m not willing to concede that it has lost.”

Some wording in the sample ballot was confusing and may be a basis to challenge the election, Nebenzahl said.

The tax was to be levied on commercial and residential parcels in the city for the next five years to raise about $4.5 million annually for the Beverly Hills Unified School District. Parcels would be assessed between $250 and $750 a year, depending on their size and use.

Opponents of the levy campaigned on a platform of tax revolt and back-to-basics in education, saying that the district has too many frill courses and spends beyond its means.

But supporters argued that the variety and depth of the programs is what draws many parents to the city. The tax’s failure means the layoff of 48 teachers, counselors, librarians and nurses, including the Academic Decathlon coach and all elementary school music teachers and computer specialists, district officials said. Teachers will lose a 3% pay increase for the coming year, which was negotiated during their strike last fall but was made contingent on passage of the parcel tax.

During the last couple of months, a few teachers have left for other school districts rather than face the uncertainty of the tax’s outcome.

“We don’t want to be mediocre,” Nebenzahl said. If the semiofficial results hold up, he said, “that means six out of a minority of one-third . . . were able to destroy, in effect, the school system.”