LOCAL ELECTIONS / MEASURE P : Irvine Weighing Price of Averting Education Cuts

Voters in the Irvine Unified School District on Tuesday will decide whether to temporarily tax themselves an extra $1.4 million a year to help avoid cuts to classroom programs.

The $35-a-year tax on each parcel of property within the school district will need a two-thirds vote to pass. Only a handful of county school districts have gotten such a measure approved since the 1978 anti-tax Proposition 13 made property taxes more difficult to increase.

In the past two years, tax measures have failed in the Capistrano Unified and Westminster school districts.

However, 71% of voters in the Los Alamitos Unified School District approved raising property taxes last year to help refurbish schools.

The Irvine Unified School District and a volunteer group of parents, students, teachers and administrators have been spreading the word about the tax question, Measure P, through a coordinated information and lobbying campaign.

The school district has sent home voter registration forms with all students for parents to complete. The campaign group has sent out two mass mailers and operated a telephone bank daily to call thousands of parents and other city voters and encourage them to vote by mail for Measure P.

The campaigners, called Partnership in Irvine Education, plan to hold a door-to-door effort throughout the city today in a final mass push.

Even though passing a new property tax is an uphill struggle, the Irvine district’s trustees voted unanimously in January to place Measure P on the ballot. The district has been trying to avoid cutting classroom programs from next year’s budget even though the district now faces a deficit of up to $3.3 million in the next fiscal year.

The shortfall is expected because the state is dealing with a $14-billion deficit, and the Legislature and governor have talked about cutting public school funding to help balance the budget.

If Measure P passes, the district’s financial woes will be eased but not solved, Deputy Supt. Paul H. Reed said last week.

“My recommendation to the (school) board continues to be, given the economic situation in the state . . . the board needs to cut $1.5 (million) to $2 million this year--even if Measure P passes,” Reed said.

The school board talked about putting Measure P on the ballot for an amount greater than $35 a year, but a consultant strongly recommended against that.

In a December telephone survey, the consultant said, voters indicated that they would reject any tax amount more than $35.

The district hired the consultant to survey Irvine voters and gauge their acceptance of a new tax.

If Measure P passes, each parcel in the district would have $35 added to the property tax bill each year for up to four years. The tax would automatically expire after the fourth year.

Also, before the tax would be levied each year, the school board would need to hold a public hearing and vote to certify that the tax money is still needed.

Money raised by Measure P would be spent only for science instruction, library programs and to update teacher skills.

Residents 65 and older would be allowed to apply for exemptions to the tax.

Turnout for Measure P is expected to be light, because it is the only item on the ballot and Tuesday is a special election, Registrar of Voters Donald F. Tanney said.

As of Friday, 4,328 of the district’s 55,481 registered voters had cast their ballots already by voting absentee.