Irvine District Votes to Put $95 Parcel Tax on Ballot

Irvine’s school board voted unanimously Monday to put a $95 property tax on the November ballot.

With a $2.4 million budget deficit this year and plans to spend $1.5 million more of its reserves in the coming school year, district officials say they must increase funding for education or they will be forced to eliminate programs in highly regarded Irvine Unified.

The annual tax is being promoted as a way to pay for safety, science, technology, class-size reduction and neighborhood schools. If the district succeeds in passing the tax, officials will be required to return to the polls every four years for renewed voter approval.

“You can’t have no cuts and no taxes,” school board President Mike Regele said. “It’s just not going to happen.”

In the months preceding the vote, the school board hired a public relations firm to poll voters. A telephone survey by Nelson Communications of Irvine asked 12,000 residents if they would prefer that the district cut programs or raise revenue by $110 per homeowner annually. About 11% said to cut programs, 46% favored increasing revenue, 31% were undecided, and the rest proposed a variety of other solutions.

Also, the Parent-Teachers Association used a postcard campaign to gauge residents’ support for the tax. Of nearly 3,000 postcards returned, the tax was favored by more than 2-to-1 over cutting programs.

PTA council Vice President Leslie Alden Crowe, who presented the data Monday, said some residents have urged the district to cut the fat from the budget, but “there is no fat. We have cut and cut and cut to the tune of $14 million over the past several years. There is nothing else to cut.”

Irvine Unified enjoys a reputation as one of the best school systems in Orange County--its science program is highly regarded and it has 10% more teachers per student than surrounding districts.

Although Irvine is an affluent city, its schools receive $95 less per student from the state than the average district in Orange County. The reason, officials say, is that funding levels were set in the 1970s, when the city had a much smaller property tax base.

With 36,000 households in Irvine, the school district stands to raise just over $3.4 million a year if the tax wins voter approval in November.

Similar attempts in 1983 and 1991 to pass a parcel tax won a majority of votes but failed to reach the required two-thirds approval.

Despite the favorable response so far, a new tax could prove a hard sell in this staunchly Republican community.

“This district has a chronic problem of wants exceeding needs,” said resident Steve Moore, who has a child in the public schools. “You said ‘yes’ to too many people. . . . Don’t ask the community to give you more money until you show that you can live within your means.”

Others, though, said they would gladly support the tax. “I have four kids in the schools, and I could not afford not to pay it,” resident Phorshia Gatewood said. She estimated that if she had to pay for private music lessons equivalent to what her children receive in public schools, the cost would be $3,600 a year.

Mayor Pro Tem Greg Smith, a former school board member, said he has long been a skeptic about the district budget. But he said: “I’m here tonight to support the tax. This is a problem of an inept state government meddling in local affairs. This is your opportunity to take control of your own destiny.”

School board members already plan to cut spending for the coming year by increasing costs to families for school bus transportation and school lunches, and eliminating health clerks from school campuses.