Schools Upset Over Fees to Collect Taxes : Finances: The districts are protesting a possible $3.1 million in county charges, which they said would take a heavy toll on budgets already hurt by state cuts.

Ventura County’s school districts are protesting the possibility that county government will charge them an estimated $3.1 million to collect property taxes.

Under a new state law, school districts countywide could be presented with bills ranging from an estimated $1,446 for the 31-student Santa Clara Elementary School District to $555,204 for the Conejo Valley Unified School District. In the past, there had been no charge.

District officials said the fees would take a heavy toll on budgets that are already stretched thin because of cuts in state funding.

For the Conejo district in Thousand Oaks, the fee would amount to about $33 per student and would exceed the district’s total reserves by $55,000, district officials said.

The fee for the Conejo district would be equal to the salaries of about 14 teachers, or the teaching staff of an average elementary school, Assistant Supt. Sarah Hart said. It equals the annual budgets of 10 elementary schools for supplies such as desks, chairs and toilet paper.

“It really does take away a great deal of money and, of course, that affects programs and it affects kids,” said Dorothy L. Beaubien, Conejo school board president.

The county tax collector’s office, which is funded by county supervisors, collects property taxes and divides them among various taxing agencies such as school districts. Counties received the right to charge fees for the service in last-minute legislation approved as part of the state budget.

County Supervisor John Flynn said county government, just like schools, is hurting financially, which “makes it a difficult situation and pits local government against local government.”

“The county has about a $5-million problem due to budget problems at the state level,” Flynn said. “The state at the same time blessed the county and said it could get money from school districts and cities. . . . I know the school districts are very concerned and some of them are going to be hurt pretty badly.

“At the same time, we do have the problems at the county level. I’m going to listen to all the arguments and then make a decision.”

But Hart said the county has already budgeted for the costs of tax collection and charging the districts would amount to a windfall for county government at the expense of the schools.

Thomas O. Mahon, assistant county auditor-controller, said there is still confusion over whether supervisors or the county auditor-controller will decide on assessing the fees.

“We’re somewhat in the middle,” Mahon said. “We’re still picking up the pieces to decide who’s on first base.”

Del Tompkins, a principal administrative analyst in the county’s legislative division, said the state legislation appears to give final authority to the auditor-controller’s office.

“It’s our understanding, the way the language is currently written, that it’s the auditor who’s calling the shots at this point, not the board,” he said.

Officials from many of the county’s 20 school districts, as well as from the Ventura County Community College District, said they are writing letters to supervisors urging them not to assess the fees.

School officials said they were notified by the county superintendent of schools office that the proposed fees would be discussed at a hearing Tuesday before the Board of Supervisors. But county officials said Wednesday that a hearing on the fees will not be on the agenda.

Some school officials said they plan to show up at Tuesday’s supervisors’ meeting to voice their opposition to the fees, even if the matter is not on the agenda.

“We really feel it’s wrong that the government and Legislature allow the county to implement a procedure to take money from the schools to pay for the county’s shortfall when we already have a shortfall,” said Richard Welcher, assistant superintendent for business services at the Ventura Unified School District.

The fee would cost the Ventura district an estimated $474,261.

“It’s like robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Welcher said.

Tom Kimberling, community college vice chancellor for administrative services, said the district would be charged about $424,000. He said the fees would take away money guaranteed through Proposition 98, the 1988 initiative that earmarks 42% of the state’s revenue for education.

“We certainly empathize with the county, but we feel we’ve already been beat up through budgets for a decade in this state,” Kimberling said. “Regrettably, the state has put the educational community in conflict with county government.”

If the fees are assessed, some district officials said, it would effectively lower the districts’ cost-of-living increase in state funding from 3% to an average of about 2.5%, forcing them to dip further into reserves and general funds to stay afloat. The cost-of-living increase was already reduced by Gov. George Deukmejian from the 4.76% approved by the Legislature.

School officials said they also oppose the fees because the structure is inequitable. According to the county superintendent of schools office, the fees would range from about $8 per student in the Hueneme Elementary School District to $51 per student in the one-school Santa Clara district.

In a letter addressed to supervisors’ Chairwoman Madge L. Schaefer, Conejo’s Beaubien said the fees would have “a devastating effect on the instructional programs.”

Supt. Andrew Smidt of the Ojai Unified School District said his district learned of the possible fee early this year and had initially budgeted $82,000 for it. However, it was among $350,000 that the district eventually cut from this year’s budget, he said.

But other districts said they had not planned for the additional cost.

Supt. Norman R. Brekke of the Oxnard Elementary School District said his district will send the bill back to the county if it is charged an estimated $157,746.

“I’ve spoken to a number of superintendents who are equally distressed with the likelihood that this cost might be forced upon them,” Brekke said. “I have a feeling that there will be district representatives from throughout the county at the next Board of Supervisors meeting.”