Officials Seek Surer Path to Park Funds : Bonds: State legislators are asked to change the law so a simple majority of voters can approve measures earmarked for recreation.

Even before a Los Angeles parks bond issue failed at the ballot box Tuesday, park officials had turned to the state Legislature to get around a roadblock to purchasing open space in areas such as the Santa Monica Mountains.

Under current law, efforts to raise taxes to buy new parkland and upgrade existing parks have been stymied because tax increases must win support from two-thirds of the voters.

That requirement has been a high hurdle, blocking passage in the past eight months of two Los Angeles area ballot measures that would have assessed property owners for parkland acquisition and improvements to local parks and recreation facilities.

As a consequence, two proposals have been introduced that either directly or indirectly would soften that requirement. The most far-reaching is a constitutional amendment carried by Sen. Frank Hill (R-Whittier) that would allow voters anywhere in the state to approve funds for local park projects with a simple majority vote.

The second is legislation sought by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy that would allow Los Angeles County to speed up the creation of a countywide open-space district. The district would have the authority to levy property tax assessments for park projects with the consent of a simple majority of voters. Similar versions of the legislation are being carried by Hill and Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Los Angeles), whose district covers parts of the San Fernando Valley.

The legislation was introduced in the wake of rejection in November of Los Angeles County Proposition B, an $817-million measure for recreational and cultural projects. Even though it received 57% of the vote--a figure that most politicians would envy--the measure failed because it did not reach the magic two-thirds mark.

Proposition B’s funds would have been divided among a variety of projects, including $20 million to buy and build trails and parks along the Rim of the Valley Trail around the San Fernando Valley to Pasadena; $15 million for a 15-acre swimming lake and pier at Hansen Dam, and $8 million to build an athletic complex in the Lancaster-Palmdale region.

Supporters of changing the law say that the need for lowering the required vote for park measures was driven home again Tuesday when 58% of voters who went to the polls in the city of Los Angeles backed Proposition 1, a $298.8-million bond measure for parks and recreational facilities. That left it about 9 percentage points short of the two-thirds support it needed to pass.

Hill’s constitutional amendment would allow passage of local parks bonds with a simple majority vote, rather than the two-thirds required now. But it also has a string attached that would prevent financing of any local park projects with state funds. The proposal, pending in the Senate, is backed by Gov. Pete Wilson.

“I want the state out of the local park bond business. I think it’s fine if we pass a state bond for state parks,” but the money should not be used for local recreation facilities, Hill said.

Local park officials have voiced reservations about that part of Hill’s constitutional amendment, in part because they have increasingly relied on state bond funds to buy local parkland.

Those state bonds have met with a relatively high degree of success because they require support from only a majority of voters.

The proposed constitutional amendment and the bills by Hill and Friedman are expected to encounter stiff opposition from conservative lawmakers. They are concerned that the proposals might skirt a provision in the state Constitution requiring two-thirds approval on local bond measures.

“The two-thirds vote for what amounts to a property tax increase is an important protection for the individual against temporary and overbearing majorities,” Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) said.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, on whose behalf the open-space-district bills were introduced, is a state agency that purchases open space in a wide area stretching from Griffith Park to Point Mugu in Ventura County.

Hill’s measure has cleared the Senate and is awaiting action in the Assembly. Friedman’s is pending on the Assembly floor. Eventually, they may be joined into one bill.

Friedman cited the difficulty of obtaining a two-thirds majority as a major reason for carrying the measure. “We’re just looking for a mechanism that would enable us to follow the will of the majority and provide money for park acquisition.”

In pressing for the legislation, Esther Feldman, a conservancy official, said Los Angeles County has not adequately addressed the need for preserving open space. “We just haven’t kept up and the needs have continued to grow,” said Feldman, who managed the Proposition B campaign.

Without the change in the law, the county would have to go through a potentially unwieldy bureaucratic process to set up an open-space district, including notifying owners of more than 2 million parcels of land. The Hill and Friedman proposals would streamline the creation of the district, allowing the Board of Supervisors to place a property tax assessment for park projects on the ballot as soon as next June. The assessment would only require a simple majority.

All of the county’s cities would be eligible to share in the funds, along with the county and the conservancy. The exact split has not been determined. But Jim Park, chief of the county’s Department of Parks and Recreation planning division, estimated that the county could raise as much as $450 million to buy and maintain parkland if it levies a $20-a-year parcel assessment.

Park said another question to be decided is whether land with commercial buildings or apartment houses would be hit with a higher assessment than property with just a single-family house.

Even though the Board of Supervisors has not taken a position on the legislation, Park said, the county has looked at the idea of creating an open-space district because “there’s a critical need for additional parkland.”

Los Angeles City Councilman John Ferraro, a major supporter of the city measure defeated Tuesday, would welcome creation of a county open-space district, said his press secretary, Bill Gilson.

If residents “love this town,” Gilson said, “they’ve got to do something” to bring recreational and cultural facilities “up to snuff.”