Due Date for County Fee Ignored by Schools : Education: The assessments for handling property taxes total more than $3 million countywide. Most districts have joined a class-action suit.

Financially strapped Ventura County school districts did not pay the property tax collection fees that were due to the county on Friday.

Officials from nearly every district said they have either sent letters to the county disputing the bills or returned them until it is determined whether the fees are legal.

The fees are the result of a law approved by the state Legislature last July as a way to help counties recoup some of the revenue lost in state budget cuts. It allows counties to assess fees against school districts, cities and special districts for collection and distribution of property taxes.

“We’re really mad about it because the county’s income has increased far more than ours has,” said Robert Brown, business manager for Oxnard Union High School District, citing a decline in funding for public education last year. He said schools may be even more hard-pressed for money next year if Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposed budget, which has no cost-of-living increases for schools, is approved.

But, if schools do not pay the bills voluntarily, the county may have other ways of getting the money.

D. L. (Woody) McWaters, chief deputy auditor-controller for the county, said officials from the auditor’s office and from the county counsel’s office are looking into possible action against school districts that do not pay the bills.

Under state law, the county could withhold property tax payments from school districts, McWaters said.

The fees range from $1,545 for the 31-student Santa Clara Elementary School District to more than $574,473 for the 18,000-student Conejo Valley Unified School District. The Ventura County Community College District was billed $429,287.

Countywide, school districts have been assessed more than $3 million.

But Robert L. Kernen, assistant superintendent of the Fillmore Unified School District, said the bills conflict with other state law that says school districts can’t be assessed for tax collection. The bills also are for services rendered before the legislation was passed, he said.

“I don’t know of any school district that is going to pay it,” Kernen said.

Most of the county’s districts have joined districts statewide in a class-action suit to settle the issue of whether counties can assess the fees.

The suit was filed in January against the state and all 58 counties by state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig, the California School Boards Assn., the Community College League of California and other statewide education groups.

However, in case the suit is not settled in their favor, many school officials said they are setting aside funds to cover the bills. Officials are also awaiting proposed legislation in Sacramento that could negate the bills.

Leo T. Molitor, assistant superintendent in the Ojai Unified School District, said the $84,100 his district was assessed is equal to the cost of two teachers.

“This comes at a bad time because it compounds the deficits of the county’s school districts,” Molitor said.

Nearly all the county’s school districts have projected deficits this year and have estimated shortfalls for the 1991-92 school year ranging from $25,000 for the 350-student Mesa Union School District to $5 million for the Simi Valley Unified School District.

This week, the Oxnard district estimated that it needs to lay off 63 employees, including teachers, and to close a school earlier than anticipated to offset a projected $2.75-million deficit.

Correspondent Jane Hulse contributed to this story.