Los Angeles Schools Oppose Property Tax

LOS ANGELES — In an effort to clean up winter stormwater — often filled with toxins, trash and health-threatening pollutants — Los Angeles County officials created a proposal to capture runoff closer to where it falls, and the plan calls for funding from a property tax.

The proposal intends to raise about $275 million a year by taxing the county’s 2.2 million property owners, based on the amount of pavement located on their property. The county would use half of the money for regional pollution controls, a small portion of it for water testing and give the rest to cities. The plan is an attempt for the county to address the increasing threat of federal regulatory action to clean up the area’s stormwater. If the proposal is passed, county officials also hope to use runoff as a potential resource for irrigation and even drinking water.

Notices went out to property owners on Nov. 30, 2012, advising them on how much the fees — ranging from $54 for a single-family home to $50,000 for larger properties — might be for the particular lot of land they own.

A protest hearing was held on Jan. 15, and about 200 people showed up to speak out about the proposal. Some of the biggest protestors of it were school district officials.

Schools are major property owners in neighborhoods all over the county, with tons of concrete covering playgrounds, driveway entrances and parking lots. The county’s school districts would owe around $14 million a year, according to a report done by Southern California Public Radio. That cost would add to an already shrinking budget for the area’s school systems.

Area property owners had the opportunity to protest the tax, which would have ended the proposal. However, because only 95,000 submitted protests, this was not the case. The supervisors voted unanimously to extend the protest period for 60 more days, also ordering county officials to prepare plans to put the issue on a general election ballot, as well as look for alternative funding methods. A majority of the suggestions were based on ones from protestors at the hearing, including Fourth District Supervisor Don Knabe, whose district includes Long Beach.

The next step for Los Angeles County officials is to approve a ballot to send to property owners, and they hope to tally up the vote by mail in March.