Schools Find a New Way to Raise Money : Finance: Board approves a property assessment district to fix up recreational facilities. The move sidesteps the two-thirds vote requirement that defeated a bond proposal in March.

The Whittier Union High School District has found another way to raise money after falling 37 votes shy of getting voter approval in March for a bond issue.

The school board Monday voted 4-0 to form a recreational facilities and maintenance assessment district. The fund-raising mechanism, which is becoming increasingly popular among school districts in the state, requires no voter approval. It will generate $1.3 million this year through property assessments, a prospect that angered most of more than 250 residents who attended Monday’s board meeting in the Whittier High School auditorium.

Whittier retiree Carl Miller said the assessment was a tax by any other name. “My bank account doesn’t know the difference whether I write a check for taxes or user fees or assessments,” he said.

Most of the audience were senior citizens who said they live on fixed incomes and would suffer from a greater tax burden. They called the assessment a violation of the spirit of Proposition 13 and other state laws that limit the ability of school districts to impose taxes without achieving a two-thirds majority at the ballot box.

“Do you obey the law or look for ways to circumvent the law, and is that a good way to teach the youngsters in your schools?” Miller asked.

Board members maintained that the benefits of the assessment are much needed and long overdue. “I happen to be a senior citizen on a limited income, so I know your plight,” board member Eve Burnett said. “We’re 40 years behind some of our repairs in this school. We’ve been nickel-and-diming, patching our schools, to keep them safe. We are going to have to do something.”

Beginning with the tax period that started July 1, homeowners will have $20 more per year added to their property tax bill. Families living in apartments, condominium units or mobile homes will pay $15.76 more. Owners of commercial properties will be assessed $50 more a year per acre, $25 more for parcels of less than half an acre. There are also increased fees for mines, farms and undeveloped land in the district of 9,000 students that serves Whittier as well as parts of Santa Fe Springs, Norwalk, Downey and La Habra Heights.

The money will be used to renovate the dilapidated football stadiums at California and Pioneer high schools. The revenue can be used only for construction, renovation and maintenance of recreational facilities, such as fields and tennis courts, and buildings used by the public, such as auditoriums.

The fees apply for only one tax year. The board must approve, modify or turn down assessment budgets on an annual basis after a public hearing. The amount of the fees can go up or down, depending on how much money is needed to pay for eligible projects.

Schools officials say they can levy the assessment based on the principle that the public can be made to pay for resources it uses.

School district attorneys say the assessment is a legally different entity from a property tax and thus does not need voter approval. Districts have the power to make the levy as a result of the Landscaping and Lighting Act of 1972, a relatively obscure piece of legislation that attracted little notice from school officials until recently.

Traditionally, cities and counties have used the act to pay for street lighting and landscaping. The Azusa Unified School District went to court to affirm that school districts can also use the act. In October, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled that the district was correct, even though he struck down portions of Azusa’s plan.

Other school systems have since picked up the baton. Bonita Unified in the San Gabriel Valley approved an assessment district Tuesday. In Orange County, the Orange Unified and Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified districts recently approved such a tax increase.

The Whittier City School District approved an assessment district June 17. That elementary district feeds into the Whittier Union High School District and serves 6,100 students from parts of Whittier, Pico Rivera and Santa Fe Springs as well as unincorporated county territory. The Whittier City assessment is $22.50 a year per dwelling and $22.50 per commercial property.

At Monday’s public hearing, property owners complained that they would have to pay the assessments for both the elementary and high school districts.

Only a handful of school systems will form maintenance assessment districts in time to get on this year’s tax rolls, but interest in them is spreading like wildfire.

“Almost uniformly across the state, the recreational facilities of school districts, from the playing fields to the swimming pools, are in a tremendous state of disrepair,” said Dale Scott, a San Francisco-based consultant who is helping many schools organize assessment districts. “This act provides a vehicle not only to maintain these facilities but to upgrade them.”

The assessments also allow districts to free money from their general fund that would have had to be spent on items such as playing fields, gym roofs or auditorium seats. As a result, the new tax will permit more of a district’s money to go to specific educational needs, Scott said.

The revenue will allow the Whittier Union district to accomplish projects it had to abandon when voters rejected the district’s $75-million bond issue. About $9 million in one-time bond projects qualify for funding from the assessment district, officials said. Ten years of assessments would pay for the lot--if the assessment district survives that long.

This assessment process faces potent challenges from two fronts. On Tuesday, state Sen. John R. Lewis (R-Orange) unveiled legislation that would make this year the last that districts could impose assessments without approval by a two-thirds of the voters.

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. will try to end the assessments even sooner. The anti-taxation group filed suit in Santa Ana on Tuesday against the Orange Unified District and hopes the courts will strike down the entire assessment process immediately.

Association President Joel Fox called the assessments “a way to avoid the vote of the people on tax increases.”

At the Whittier hearing, board members listened to residents berate them for five hours before approving the assessment. The Santa Fe Springs City Council and Chamber of Commerce also filed protests. However, only a much greater turnout would have prompted him to vote differently, board President Joe Duardo said.

District parent Gary Walburger was one of six residents who spoke in favor of the assessment. He noted that more than 100 people were using the school ball fields and courts outside the auditorium and said such facilities were worth paying a fee to maintain. “When we close recreation facilities . . . we encourage greater violence and other problems in the community,” he said. “I would hope we could be more farsighted.”

MAINTENANCE ASSESSMENT DISTRICTS

After a 1990 court decision approved the use of assessment districts, numerous school districts have established them to impose annual fees on property owners to maintain school facilities such as playing fields, tennis courts, swimming pools and auditoriums. The fees can be enacted through a majority vote of the school board. Proponents argue that the fees are fair, saying residents should pay some of the upkeep for facilities they use. Besides, they say, the school districts desperately need the money. Opponents say the fees are property taxes and, like other property taxes, should be subject to voter approval. They are challenging the assessments both in the court system and the state Legislature.