Tax Measures That Failed Once Return for 2nd Try

They fit neatly into popular campaign slogans that make crime and education top priorities for anxious voters. But the initiatives on the Nov. 5 ballot will force Oxnard area residents to decide if they are willing to put their money where their priorities are.

Measure Y, the Oxnard school bond, and Measure Z, the police and fire utility tax, address important issues that impact the quality of life in Oxnard, supporters say.

But opponents counter that the measures translate into more taxes. The police measure in particular, opponents say, does not address the root of the crime problem.

The school bond would allocate $57 million for the construction of a new high school and upgrade dilapidated facilities. The bulging student population at all six schools in the Oxnard Union High School District continues to grow, making it difficult, if not impossible, to accommodate all the students, according to school officials.

The district--which includes Camarillo, Port Hueneme and county students--needs to alleviate the overcrowding situation at their schools, they say.

“More and more students are coming to the doors of our campuses and it is important that we be able to house those students,” said Supt. Bill Studt, who noted that the average number of students enrolled at each of the high schools is 2,500, while the optimum number would be no more than 2,200. “At this point we are at a crossroads in terms of being able to deliver a sound educational environment for our students.”

Voters will also be faced with a $5.27-million utility tax measure to be used exclusively for increasing police and fire services. Although Oxnard’s crime rate has declined to its lowest level in 25 years, there has been a huge jump in homicides over the past year, according to police. This year, there have been 11 homicides--many of them related to gang violence--compared with four in 1995.

Supporters of the utility tax say they understand people’s hesitation to pay more taxes, but the city needs to invest in fire and police services.

“I listen to the scanner at night so I know what happens out there,” said Denise Paul, co-chair of Safety 2000 Committee, formed to lobby on behalf of the measure. “I hear it nightly and it does scare me. Yes, we are a safe city in a lot of ways, but our youth crimes and violent crimes are escalating and it has got to stop.”

Opponents say the money for more officers will not alleviate the crime problem.

“The community needs to look at the conditions and causes of the problem, not the Band-Aid solutions of increasing arrests and sweeps,” said Ricardo Melendez, a drug and alcohol counselor at El Concilio del Condado de Ventura. “More money [for police and fire] is fine and good . . . but it is still not looking at the causes.”

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Both ballot measures are reruns, of sorts. But this year’s measures have gone through some fine-tuning and refinement, with the hopes that they won’t fail like their predecessors,

In 1992, a similar $45-million bond measure to build a seventh high school was rejected by voters in a special election.

Supporters say they are doing things differently this year.

“We’ve changed the strategy of how we are attacking it,” Studt said. “We are making each school site a campaign center. . . . The voter registration and Get Out the Vote efforts are emanating from each of the neighboring schools.”

Supporters say they are having to dispel misinformation about their measure. Some residents have been asking why a new high school needs to be built if the new Oxnard High School was just constructed. Supporters explain that the new school is simply replacing an older building that was closed due to seismic safety problems.

The proposed high school would be at Gonzales Road and Snow Avenue, making it centrally located.

“I am hoping there is a new level of awareness as it relates to schools,” said Measure Y campaign manager Ken Benefield. The bonds would be paid off with increased property taxes for homeowners and businesses in the school district.

With police and fire, supporters of the utility tax say they learned their lesson from the overwhelming defeat of Measure C in 1990, which called for a 5% utility tax in Oxnard.

That measure, which was rejected by a 3-1 margin, was intended to alleviate the city’s $2.8-million deficit and to avoid cuts in fire and police protection.

This year’s measure was carefully crafted to avoid any comparisons to Measure C, said Kevin Bernzott of Safety 2000.

“The big difference is that Measure C targeted solely the business community and it had no cap,” Bernzott said. “This measure, businesses and homeowners jointly share the burden and there is a cap” on how much each resident or business would pay.

“The money has to be used only for police and fire,” he added. “The city can’t use the money for something else.”

The 1996 utility tax, which must be approved by two-thirds of city voters, will add $5 to $10 a month to Oxnard residents’ utility bills. The tax includes a sunset clause that would wipe out the levy in eight years unless residents vote in 2002 to extend it.

Yet critics of the utility tax say supporters are using scare tactics to sway voters into thinking their city is not safe.

“I just have a problem with the mind-set they are operating on,” said Oscar Gonzalez of the Mexican American Bar Assn. “They are operating under a siege mentality. . . . I am kind of bothered by this perception that everything has gone to hell. In light of the fact that we have had increases in the police budget over the past three years, I think this is misguided.”

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Over the past three years, Oxnard city leaders have found $3.5 million in their budget to hire 31 more police officers, even though general spending in other departments has dropped nearly $2 million.

However, Police Chief Harold Hurtt said the city has lost more than $12 million in property taxes and other revenue, which also hurts the department’s ability to augment services.

“In my professional opinion, there are several unmet needs as far as public safety in the city, that we need to address,” Hurtt said. “Residents have a better idea of what is going on in their neighborhoods. If they see a need in their community to increase public safety then they will make that decision on Nov. 5.”

The Oxnard Fire Department says its staff has not been increased since 1970, even though the population has more than doubled.

Still, if history is any indicator, supporters of both measures will have a hard time getting them passed, according to Los Angeles political consultant Joe Cerrell.

Compounding the problem in Oxnard this fall, he said, are the two separate ballot initiatives, each asking voters to pay more for services.

“People are not anxious to tax themselves, regardless of the merits,” Cerrell said. “Police, fire, schools, motherhood and apple pie are all rolled into one, but there are still people out there who say, ‘I don’t have kids in school.’ Then you have the people who are just uptight about it.”