After 33 local, county and state tax measures passed on the November ballot, the Board of Supervisors may be asking Los Angeles County property owners to pass one more. This time it is a parcel tax for storm-water management that the County’s Flood Control District says is necessary to pay for treatment of storm water runoff.
The fee is based on parcel size and the percentage of the parcel covered by hard surfaces. Here are some examples on what the fees would be:
- Single family residential parcel: $54 (average), $8 (minimum), $83 (maximum)
- Condominiums: $20 or less (typical)
- Convenience store or fast-food restaurant: $300-$400
- Five-acre city park: $500-$600
- 10-acre elementary school: $8,000
- 15-acre big-box retail store: $15,000
Hardest hit will be the cash-strapped school districts. They will be charged roughly $8,000 for every elementary school and $15,000 for every middle and high school. If people were worried about how the schools budget would look if Prop 30 didn’t pass in November, they should be equally as worried about how LBUSD, LBCC and CSULB will pay for this hefty parcel tax if it is not defeated.
It is estimated that LBUSD will owe $715,000 per year as their part of the storm water mitigation. For this reason, the Board of Education voted to oppose the measure at its meeting Tuesday night, joining L.A. County Supervisor Don Knabe, who has spoken out against it as well.
There is a two-step process, however, that the Clean Water, Clean Beaches measure (of which the parcel tax is a part) must go through. The process includes a public hearing and a mail-in election, in accordance with the Proposition 218 provisions of the California Constitution.
Roughly two million property owners in Los Angeles County were sent a notice in the mail notifying them of the proposal and any property owner may testify or file a written protest with the Executive Officer of the Board of Supervisors at any time before the end of the public hearing, which will take place on January 15.
The notice also said that the proposed fee would be used for projects “that will significantly reduce the degradation of waterways in Los Angeles County and improve the quality of the water in those waterways,” noting that the projects could also generate thousands of local jobs in construction, engineering, landscaping, environmental work and other trades.
A written protest from 50 percent of property owners in the county can suspend the mail-in ballot vote. Otherwise, it may authorize the mail-in ballot election at the hearing. Unfortunately, the protest form looked more like a community newsletter than a serious ballot. So far, Supervisors Knabe and Antonovich are the only two in fighting the parcel tax from the dais. The mail-in ballot could take place sometime between March and May 2013. A simple majority of “yes” votes approves the measure.
For more information on the Clean Water, Clean Beaches measure, visit the L.A. County’s Clean Water website. Written protests must be signed by the property owner, include the parcel number and mailed to: Executive Officer, Board of Supervisors, P.O. Box 866006, Los Angeles, CA 90086. The public hearing will be at 9:30AM Jan. 15, 2013 at the Board of Supervisors Hearing Room, Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, 500 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, CA 90012.