Property Owners Spoiling for New Tax Revolt in O.C. : Assessment fees: They say school district special levies violate the spirit of Proposition 13.

School playgrounds and gymnasiums in Orange County could be among the main battlefields for the state’s next tax revolt.

Faced with run-down buildings and overused school grounds, school administrators have discovered a controversial source of additional revenue: property owners.

Under a 1972 state law, school districts and other public agencies can form maintenance assessment districts to assess fees--without voter approval--for upkeep and improvement of publicly used facilities, such as school tennis courts, baseball diamonds and parking lots.

With the assessment fees already levied in one district and under consideration by seven others in the county, the battlefront is becoming clearly defined. The combatants are school officials who say the fee is a legitimate means to cover repair costs without being forced to divert money from the classroom, and property owners who call it a thinly veiled tax in disguise and a blatant violation of Proposition 13.

“For the past 20 years, we have done without while school buildings and the grounds have deteriorated,” said Norman C. Guith, superintendent of the Orange Unified School District, which last month became the first district in the county and the second in the state to approve maintenance fees. “The bottom line is that these maintenance districts can only help improve schools.”

But like the initials of Maintenance Assessment Districts, some people are hopping mad over them.

Property owners say the extra fees, which would be tacked on to their tax bills, are “undemocratic” because state law dictates that school officials do not need voter approval to assess them.

The assessment fees are a byproduct of the state Lighting and Landscape Act of 1972, which allows public agencies to charge community residents for maintenance and upgrading of public areas. Originally written to pay for the upkeep of public parks, the law generally has been applied to keep up roads, repair street lights and maintain public facilities.

But recently, financially strapped school districts looking for creative methods of financing have discovered that since the public contributes to the wear and tear on school facilities open to community use, they can, as public agencies, recoup those costs.

While the money reaped from the assessment fees must only go toward the upkeep of the facilities, district officials argue that the hundreds of thousands of dollars that would ordinarily go to maintain school grounds could be diverted to classrooms and other uses with the fees. Indeed, even a few parents say they are willing to spend some extra money every year if there’s a chance that their children will benefit.

“Students are becoming injured because they cannot go out and play in their regular physical education classes because of the disrepair,” said Linda Elliot, a parent of a 14-year-old El Modena High School student and one of the few who spoke in favor of the fee when it was passed by the Orange Unified district on June 29.

But most residents without children and even many with them are usually reluctant to increase their tax bills--which is why the Maintenance Assessment Districts are all the more attractive to school officials.

Under Proposition 13, a two-thirds majority is required when voters are asked to increase taxes. But the law doesn’t require any vote for public agencies to assess a fee.

Although school board members do not have to turn to the voters to assess maintenance fees, there often is a heavy price to pay in public opinion. In the Orange Unified district, angered residents called school board trustees who voted for the Maintenance Assessment District “traitors to the American system,” and some vowed to make them pay in the next election.

“This is just another way to sneak past Proposition 13,” said 27-year Orange resident Elizabeth Livingstone, referring to the 1978 voter initiative that limits property tax increases. “This is unfair. I say shame on them for trying to muscle this tax on us.”

Earlier this month, Buena Park School District trustees struck down the district’s proposal for a maintenance district after property owners packed their board meeting to cry out in opposition. Last week, the La Habra City School District board voted to delay its decision on the fee until October, but the shouts of derision from many La Habrans were no less vehement.

After shouting about “the Boston Tea Party,” resident William Grago said: “I can’t understand how the board can have a straight face and say it’s not a tax when it is.”

This week, other districts in Orange County are pressing ahead with maintenance fees in mind. Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified, which is facing $9 million in cuts, will be considering the fees Tuesday night. And four districts in the Huntington Beach area--the Huntington Beach Union High School, Huntington Beach City, Ocean View and Westminster districts--that have joined under the banner of the West Orange County Schools Financing Authority will consider the fee at what is sure to be a tumultuous joint hearing Thursday night.

School districts are considering the maintenance fees only out of desperation, said Wendy Margarita, director of business services and budget control for the county Department of Education.

“School districts have few choices,” Margarita said. “They could either reduce expenditures or they could increase revenue.”

The assessment fees also make good business sense because the costs of delayed repairs can be much higher in the future, Margarita said.

The state Department of Education has not taken a position on the assessment fees, said spokesman William L. Rukeyser.

Guith points out that school repairs at the Orange Unified School district had to be placed on the back burner because of high costs. Rather than pay for broken lawn sprinklers and leaky roofs, the district has chosen to pay for instructional material, Guith said. But the scale back has proved to be unsightly and demoralizing to the children.

“We have grass growing out of the blacktops,” Guith said. “It’s discouraging when you have to mow the blacktop, which hasn’t been replaced for 30 years. We have schools that were built with no windows and now have air-conditioning systems that don’t work. It’s a constant concern.”

In Orange, residents will be required to to pay a $30-a-year fee that is expected to raise $1.6 million in its first year. The fees will show up on the December bill. If the proposal is passed in the Huntington Beach area, property owners would have to pay an additional $50 more a year.

The issue of assessment fees has also pushed forward the debate on whether school facilities should be available to the public free after school hours.

“The public has been allowed access to school fields, gymnasiums, swimming pools, baseball diamonds and parking lots,” said Karen O’Bric, a member of the Huntington Beach City School District board and chairwoman of the joint authority agency. “This has placed a burden on school budgets to maintain these sites. That is money that could be used for instruction.”

San Francisco-based financial consultant Dale Scott says school board members find it hard to pass maintenance fees.

“Politically, they (maintenance fees) are very difficult to put into place in a school district,” Scott said. “It is very difficult for boards to vote on implementing maintenance districts in the face of very hostile opposition from a small but highly vocal group of opponents.”

Among the opponents are realtors who fear that assessment fees will scare off prospective buyers already jittery about high taxes and activist groups such as the Los Angeles-based Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn.

The Huntington Beach/Fountain Valley Board of Realtors is gearing up for a battle against the fee.

“We’re not against education,” said James Righeimer, president of the board. “We are against it because it is unethical use of that act to tax people and raise funds.”

Righeimer argues that not all property owners use the school facilities.

“Whether the public chooses to use the recreational facilities or not, they have to pay,” Righeimer said. “What’s to stop them from hiking it. Nothing.”

But Scott disputes that contention.

“That is untrue,” Scott said. “Every year, the (school) districts must come up with a new budget funded by assessment fees. The budget then has has to be passed by the board and go through public hearings. Nothing is locked in forever. The boards can’t raise the (fee) capriciously.”

Times correspondents Rose Apodaca and Mary Helen Berg contributed to this report.