ORANGE : School Board Votes to Fight New Law
Trustees for the Orange Unified School District voted unanimously this week to fight a new state law that will allow county government to levy fees on districts for the costs associated with collecting property taxes.
The board voted to contribute $4,500 to a legal fund established by the California School Board Assn. that will be used to fund a lawsuit opposing the law.
The board’s vote follows similar action taken by the Newport-Mesa Unified School District earlier this week.
“We’re going to go into court and try to have this ruled unconstitutional and have this legislation wiped from the slates,” said Jeff Holstien, school board president. The contribution will come from the district’s general fund, he said.
Orange Unified receives about 60% of its base revenue from property taxes, Holstien said, and the new law could force the district to pay the county more than $570,000 to collect property taxes.
“We’ve already suffered (the impact of the fee) because we’ve already taken the money out of the budget that could have been used for reading resource teachers and salary enhancement,” Holstien said.
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