Calleguas Water Board Adopts $5 Tax : Utilities: The levy is half the amount originally proposed. A rosier state budget eases some of the district’s financial problems.

The board of the Calleguas Municipal Water District unanimously voted Wednesday to levy a $5 tax--half the amount originally proposed--on more than 150,000 properties from Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks to Oxnard.

A better-than-expected state budget alleviated some of the water district’s financial problems, General Manager Don Kendall said. As a result, the Calleguas board was able to reduce the amount of the tax, which Kendall said will cost the average resident 42 cents a month.

“We’re tickled pink,” board President Patrick H. Miller said. “For me, 42 cents a month is nothing.”

The levy is designed to recoup about $1 million of the $1.45 million in state property tax revenues that Calleguas lost last year when the Legislature shifted 40% of that money to education and other programs.

Officials had feared the loss would grow to as much as $3.5 million this year had the Legislature diverted the district’s property tax revenue to other programs. But the final state budget maintains the same level of tax revenues as last year.

The levy, known as a parcel charge, will be imposed on every lot or acre--more than 225,000 acres--within Calleguas’ service territory. It will show up on the next property tax bills in the fall.

Property owners may be eligible for an exemption or deferral of the charge if they do not use Calleguas water, do not benefit indirectly from the water and have no plans to develop their property for at least a decade, Kendall said.

As Ventura County’s largest water wholesaler, Calleguas supplies nearly 500,000 customers in Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Camarillo, Moorpark, Oxnard and the unincorporated communities of Oak Park, Somis, Bell Canyon and Lake Sherwood.

Most customers are unfamiliar with Calleguas because they buy their water from one of 21 public and private water retailers in the county supplied by Calleguas. And Calleguas, in turn, gets its water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

The parcel tax has received sharp criticism from county farmers and property owners who stand to pay thousands of dollars in fees for their large land holdings. They have complained that they should not have to pay if they are not Calleguas customers.

Kendall said the district has received 173 requests for exemptions or deferrals from the tax so far. He estimated that the district will exempt about 150 of property owners, costing the water district about $270,000 in tax revenue.

Also, some residents were angered that Calleguas wanted its tax levy at the same time the Metropolitan Water District voted to assess its own levy of $9.58 per lot or acre within the Calleguas service district.

“We are very sympathetic to residents in this county,” Kendall said. “But we live in a desert and water will continue to have to be supplied.”

Later this month, Kendall said, the board will consider raising developer fees to recoup more of the lost income. Those fees, for water service to newly built residences and businesses, have not been raised since 1981.

Wednesday’s meeting was also the last for Carl Ward of Oxnard, the senior member of the Calleguas board. He resigned after 31 years on the board.

“I’ve been at this long enough,” Ward said. “I’m past 80.” He turns 81 in December.

Ward served eight years on the Oxnard City Council, including a term as mayor, before he joined the Calleguas board in 1962. The former car dealer said he won his first election to the council in 1952 when he ran on a platform to link Oxnard to the Calleguas district.

At that time, he said, the poor quality of Oxnard water was a suspected cause of heart defects in newborns. “There were ‘blue babies’ appearing at St. John’s Hospital and we had to do something about it,” Ward said.

The board will appoint a member to fill the remainder of Ward’s term, which expires Jan. 2, 1995.