Green will flow into Newport Coast mailboxes

June Casagrande

Newport Coast homeowners will witness a rare sight when they open

their county tax bills in about two months: a credit of anywhere from

$80 to $3,000.

After months of wrangling with the question of how to pay

residents $1.2 million a year for 15 years as part of a

pre-annexation agreement, city and county officials found a way to

put the credit right on their tax bills.

“The best way to pay it back was through the county,” Assistant

City Manager Dave Kiff explained. “We looked at the option of just

cutting checks, but that would have been expensive and it could have

created some bookkeeping and tax difficulties.”

The $18 million in tax relief is part of a deal struck with the

city, Newport Coast residents and the Irvine Ranch Water District

while the parties were hammering out the details of annexing the area

to Newport Beach. The water district agreed to pay the city $25

million over six years for the right to continue providing water

service there. At the insistence of resident leaders, city officials

agreed to return the $25 million to residents: $18 million in the

form of tax relief and the remaining $7 million set aside to build a

community center.

The credits that appear on the homeowners’ tax bills will vary

based on the assessment taxes for each home. The average homeowner

will get about $720 this year, though some will get as little as $80

and a few will get as much as $3,000. Each year, the amount is

expected to go down as the $1.2 million is divided among a growing

number of homeowners.

But some residents may not even realize where the money is coming

from. City officials fought to convince the county to put the words

“Newport Beach” on the tax bill next to the credit. But the bills

only have room for enough characters to name the assessment tax and

add “cnb” at the end, meaning “city of Newport Beach.”

“We would like to get the word out that that’s what they will be

seeing when they see that credit in parentheses on their bill,” Kiff

said.