LA HABRA : School-Recreation Levy Vote Is Delayed

Trustees of the La Habra City School District have voted to delay until October a decision on levying an annual assessment to cover costs for improvements and maintenance of school recreation areas.

More than 100 residents attended a four-hour hearing Tuesday night, most of them to denounce the proposal. If the levy is approved, property owners within the school district boundaries would be assessed an annual maintenance fee of $36 for single-family homes and $72 for apartments.

“We already did away with the Boston Tea Party!” resident William Grago shouted at the hearing. “I can’t understand how the board can have a straight face and say it’s not a tax when it is.”

The Board of Trustees voted 3 to 2 to delay its decision pending a study of the effects of a proposed exemption on property owners who are receiving Social Security disability payments or are over age 65 and have incomes of less than $24,000 a year.

If the exemption is adopted, the district would have to make up the difference to guarantee the $326,000 it expects to raise from the fee. But the delay means there will be no money collected for the 1991-92 school year.

“It’s possible that the number (of exempt residents) could make the assessment not cost-efficient for the district,” Trustee Nancy S. Zinberg said.

Trustees Morrison M. Clements and Antonio Valle Jr. cast the dissenting votes. Valle proposed a general bond election in 1992, based on resident protests that the fee should be up to the voters and not the board.

“We have Proposition 13 and this (assesment) goes against that,” said resident Veronica Bolek, referring to the voter initiative that limits increases in property tax assessments.

“And what are you doing with the money you do have? Teachers are being laid off and you want to spend money on landscaping. You got more guts than brains,” she told the board.

A handful of parents spoke in favor of the fee, including Sherri White, who told the board, “I think 10 cents a day is a small price to pay for our kids.”

The state Lighting and Landscape Act of 1972 provides the authority for levying the fee. The act ordinarily is used by public agencies to finance capital improvements for items such as street lights and sidewalks.

The fee would pay for improvements to equipment and areas such as safety padding, fitness courts and fields, and related parking lots, lighting and restrooms at facilities used by the community at the district’s nine schools.

School districts statewide, including five in the county, are considering forming similar maintenance assessment districts. Orange Unified recently became the second school district in the state to form such an assessment district.