Beverly Hills to Try Again for Parcel Tax : Education: The levy to raise money for schools will be on the June 4 ballot for the third time. Last year’s measure failed by four votes.

The Beverly Hills City Council on Tuesday unanimously agreed to place a parcel tax on the June 4 ballot to raise money for schools.

By approving a proposed school tax measure for the third time, council members, who have served as leading advocates of the tax, put Beverly Hills into a select California group. Only the Lake Tahoe area’s Tahoe-Truckee Unified School District, where four parcel tax measures were put to voters before one finally passed in 1989, has tried more than twice.

After last year’s tax failed in Beverly Hills and forced the financially strapped school district to lay off 41 teachers and dozens of other employees, the council members said they would support another ballot measure. The June, 1990, parcel tax proposal, which would have brought in about $4.3 million a year for five years, fell four votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for approval.

If approved, the tax would be levied starting July 1 as follows:

* Condominium owners would pay $250 per unit.

* Single-family parcels would be taxed $350 to $650 depending on the size of the lot.

* Commercial properties would be taxed $650 or $750, depending on the amount of floor space.

* Multiple-family residential properties under four units would be taxed $450; properties of four to eight units would pay $600, and parcels of nine or more units would pay $750.

Before the vote, teachers, students and parents offered nearly three hours of impassioned pleas for the tax. When they finished, it was the council members’ turn to give long speeches on why they believe the tax is the only answer to the district’s problems.

“It’s a matter of priorities,” said Dick Douglas, principal of Hawthorne School. “This community has shown that it is more than willing to support quality education and education of young people is absolutely critical.

Mayor Allan L. Alexander told the packed chamber audience that “we shouldn’t even be here tonight” because both previous attempts to approve a parcel tax should have passed. “For me, it’s not even close. The money has to come from us.”

Sherman Kulick, co-chairman of Citizens for Cost-Effective Quality Education, was the only person to speak against the proposed tax. Kulick said the school district’s problems will not be solved by additional funding, but rather by an overhaul of management.

This year, the Beverly Hills Unified School District has a $28.6-million budget, but officials project a $1.26-million deficit for the 1991-92 school year.