Voters Reject Tax for Parks, Beaches

In a disappointment for youth advocacy groups, the city’s voters Tuesday rejected a proposal to tax households as much as $36 a year to pay for park and beach improvements.

The advisory measure on whether to create a citywide assessment district to pay for sports and recreational facilities was defeated 53% to 47%, with 18,514 against the proposal and 16,223 in favor of it.

Chuck Beauregard, chairman of Save Our Kids, said the election results were still a victory for supporters, considering the complexity of the issue and negative public perception of any tax assessment district.

“We were told five weeks ago we’d be lucky if we got 35%” of the vote, he said.

“The part of the public that is willing to look at the problem and react to it, and not to a knee-jerk reaction to words ‘assessment’ or ‘tax,’ has learned that the quality of life in Huntington Beach is at risk,” Beauregard said.

“Is the council going to stick their heads in the sand or stand up and find a way to solve the problems?” Beauregard asked. “It’s an issue that doesn’t deserve to go away. If we can have a park for butterflies, we can have a park for kids.”

Councilman Dave Garofalo, who opposed the measure, said he wasn’t surprised that voters rejected the proposal. He and other opponents had said the assessment measure was short on specifics, such as sites and costs, and needed further study.

Proponents said the assessment district would have raised about $2.7 million a year to acquire, develop and improve sites for youth sports, an aquatics complex and a new senior citizens center.

The vote was advisory to the City Council on whether an assessment district should be created. Some council members had said that they would support the district only if two-thirds of the city’s voters backed it.