Rogan Assails College Assessment Proposal

Assembly Majority Leader James E. Rogan on Tuesday protested the special fees property owners may be required to pay the Los Angeles Community College District for campus improvements.

Rogan (R-Glendale) said the proposed assessment is inappropriate, especially in a place like Burbank, which is not home to any of the district’s nine campuses.

“The college district is trying to sugarcoat this tax with words like assessment district, but it is a tax plain and simple,” Rogan said.

“Shielding one’s checkbook from unwanted taxes should not require citizens to be constantly on the lookout for disguised taxes,” he said. “I pledge to fight this proposed tax by all available means.”

The district sent notices about the proposed new assessment to owners of 1.1 million properties in the Los Angeles area two weeks ago.

District officials said the proposed assessments for 1996-97 would be $9.36 per unit for apartments and condominiums, $12 for single-family parcels and $66 per acre of improved commercial property.

The money would be used to improve recreational facilities, which the public often uses, said Blair Sillers, assistant to Chancellor Neil Yoneji.

Sillers acknowledged the district has received hundreds of calls from property owners opposed to the proposal. A hearing on the matter will be held at Valley College in Van Nuys tonight and another will be held at Los Angeles Trade Technical College downtown before district officials vote on the matter June 12, he said.