La Canada Flintridge Voters to Decide School Parcel Tax

Voters in La Canada Flintridge next week will be asked to approve a controversial parcel tax to raise $1.5 million for local schools in each of the next four years.

Passage of Proposition B, the only issue on the special June 4 ballot, requires approval of two-thirds of the voters. Each property owner would be assessed $250 per parcel per year, except owners age 65 and over who can apply for an exemption.

A similar measure proposed five years ago in La Canada Flintridge was endorsed by 56% of the voters, but fell short of the required 66.7% approval. Of the 97 parcel tax elections that have been held since Proposition 13 put a cap on school taxes in 1978, only 35 have passed, according to EdSource in Menlo Park, a nonpartisan watchdog on school financing.

Backers of Tuesday’s measure said the added revenue is needed to make up for severe cutbacks in state funds and to maintain the level of education that residents of the affluent community expect.

Meredith Reynolds, chairman of the Committee for Quality Education, a volunteer organization formed 18 months ago to deal with the school funding crisis, said earlier this year that a successful tax campaign would require the work of at least 200 volunteers. Reynolds said Tuesday that “well over 300 volunteers” are participating.

“This is very much a grass roots campaign,” Reynolds said. “The volunteers have been incredible. They have all very carefully done their jobs.”

Speakers from both sides addressed a community forum on the issue last week, and both groups are predicting victory for their side.

Barbara Pieper, a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Education and a former La Canada High School teacher, said she is confident that the community “will continue to support quality education.” She said school district officials “have exhausted every other method” to retain local control over programs.

But John Belcher, an attorney who presented the opposing viewpoint, said, “Already a great tax burden is being borne” by young couples and other recent arrivals in the community. While Belcher said he agrees with arguments that schools need the money, he said, “The problem is that at some point the tax burden gets to be intolerable.”

Only voters living within the boundaries of the La Canada Unified School District are eligible to vote in the election. Some areas of the city are outside the district. Polls are scheduled to be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday.