SAN CLEMENTE : Newsletter to Clarify Language in Tax Bill

Residents soon will be receiving a newsletter from the city to end confusion about their property tax bills.

The bills, which were sent out about two weeks ago, list an inaccurate description for the city’s controversial new street assessment, which was created to pay for repairs of 60 miles of the worst roads in the city.

The tax is listed as “Assessment District Bond #2,” despite the fact that no bonds have been issued. In addition, the city plans to issue only one bond--not two--to help pay for the 18-year, $55-million street repair project, said City Manager Michael W. Parness.

“When it came out on the tax bills the way it did, it was a total surprise to us,” Parness said. He said that a $7.5-million bond is scheduled to be issued within the next two years. “We have taken steps to make it clear to the county to change the description next year.”

Parness said that county auditors, who are responsible for printing the property tax bills, failed to use the written description that the city had given them and instead used a generic computer code that stands for assessment bonds.

County auditors said they were following the code included on the forms and that they have a limited number of codes they can use to describe assessments. They also said they didn’t know the bonds had not been issued.

The newsletter is expected to be distributed the first week of November.