COSTA MESA NEWPORT BEACH : Schools Get Onetime $3-Million Windfall

In a move that should help avoid cutbacks, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District received a onetime windfall of $3 million due to a recent change in the way the county allocates delinquent property taxes, the district’s Board of Education learned this week.

In the past, local school districts had to wait until individual property owners paid up--sometimes three or four years--before the county would allocate districts their full tax share. That changed July 1, however, and the districts will receive their full share of tax revenue up front, rather than having to wait for the money.

But it wasn’t all good news for the trustees at the special budget study session Thursday. District budget analyst Michael Fine also told the board that an expected decrease in property taxes countywide as a result of reassessments could mean a drop of $2.3 million in expected revenue for the 1993-94 fiscal year, which began July 1.

Thus, the $3-million windfall in property taxes cancels out the reductions of property tax proceeds received from the state and leaves the district with a $700,000 surplus. Without it, school officials said, they would be left scrambling to meet their goals of reducing class size, replacing equipment and increasing custodial services for the upcoming school year.

The district is still stinging from a $4-million embezzlement scandal, in which the district’s former budget director Stephen Wagner pleaded guilty in December and was sentenced in June. “This is just helping us get through a bad economic year,” said Trustee Sherry Loofbourrow. “We are making ourselves solid as we move forward and using (the extra money) to give us a thoughtful opportunity to react to the tight economy we are in.”

The Board of Education mulled over these developments, electing to use the windfall money to beef up three reserve accounts and help pay for the costs of reducing class size by an average of two students per classroom.