Beutner's changes to ballot language spark debate over parcel tax for L.A. schools
A dispute is roiling over a change to the ballot language of Measure EE, which would raise an estimated $500 million a year for Los Angeles public schools if approved by voters next month.
The funding infusion would provide major relief to the financially challenged L.A. Unified School District, but it would come at the cost of a substantial new obligation for local property owners.
The ballot language is the latest battlefront between business interests that oppose the tax and those who favor it, including school district officials, labor groups and others.
The proceeds of Measure EE would help both traditional public schools and privately operated charter schools in L.A. Unified. It will go before voters who live within the boundaries of the school system on June 4 and must win two-thirds approval. It is called a “parcel tax,” because the tax is applied in a uniform way per parcel and not based on the value of the property. Each eligible square foot of a parcel would be taxed at 16 cents a year for 12 years.
The school board voted unanimously on Feb. 28 to put the measure on the ballot. And district staff assured board members at the time that there would be no changes to wording, with the exception of correcting a misspelling or an error in grammar or syntax. To do otherwise would be illegal, board members were told.
But then in a March 11 letter to a county election official, L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner requested a change to the description of what would be taxed.
This description is crucial because it affects how much revenue the school system collects and how much money each property owner must pay for “improved building square footage.”
If this revision amounts to a change in the district’s taxing authority, the measure could face a legal challenge, based on the district’s own earlier legal analysis.
The original language, as approved by the Board of Education, defines what can be taxed as “habitable main square footage as measured by the Los Angeles County Assessor and as maintained in the Assessor’s electronic reports.”
But it is the revised definition submitted by Beutner that appears on the ballot: “the square CONTINUE READING: Beutner's changes to ballot language spark debate over parcel tax for L.A. schools - Los Angeles Times