BURBANK : Reimbursement OKd for Bond Measure

Low-income senior citizens and disabled Burbank residents will be reimbursed for the cost of a proposed $100-million school bond measure under a motion passed by the City Council.

The Burbank City Council approved the plan in a 4-0 vote despite some objections from the public that the council was trying to buy votes for the Burbank school board.

“I have never seen anything as shameless as this,” Ted McConkey, a leader of a local homeowners group who told the council, “some of you must have been Chicago aldermen in an earlier life to come up with this scheme.”

The bond referendum has been scheduled by the Burbank Unified School District for April 12 as part of a $138-million plan to rebuild the public schools. The city has promised $23 million in aid to help rebuild the schools.

To be eligible for the reimbursement, the person must be a property owner with a household income of less than $16,900, or $19,300 if it is a two-person household. Some of the speakers Tuesday night complained that the reimbursement program was not being extended to renters, who will have to pay more as their landlord costs go up.

Burbank city management services director John Nicoll said the city had no way of reimbursing renters for the increase in costs because there was no way of tracking how much a landlord would raise rents if the bond were to pass.

Nicoll also told the council that the exemption for low-income property owners would cost the city $14,000 to $35,000 a year over the life of a 25-year bond. He also guessed that nearly 700 residents would be eligible for the program.

According to the financial experts hired by the district, the bond would cost the owner of a home worth $101,000 about $36 a year, but some residents have questioned those figures.