School District Looks to Raise Property Tax Rate
The new Conejo Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) superintendent believes a surcharge on property ownership may be the best way to raise more revenue for schools.
Jeffrey Baarstad, who took over as superintendent on July 1, floated the idea in his annual budget presentation to the CVUSD Board of Education. The CVUSD oversees schools in Westlake Village in addition to Newbury Park and Thousand Oaks.
“It’s people’s money. It’s a difficult time. It would not be an easy road to go down,” Baarstad said to The Acorn. “But I think it’s something we still need to investigate.”
The school district currently faces an $8.5 million deficit.
The surcharge would be called a parcel tax. A parcel tax is a yearly fee assessed on all properties within the school district boundaries. The millions of dollars generated would go directly into school district coffers.
Parcel taxes have been used by neighboring districts. Homeowners in the Las Virgenes school district passed a parcel tax in 2004 and 2007. They pay $98 annually. Oak Park homeowners passed a tax in 2004 and 2008. They pay $197 annually.
The school district next intends to determine whether the tax increase could get the two-thirds approval required by voters under state law. A primary component of the research would be to determine the “tipping point,” or the maximum amount of money that would still be accepted by voters.
“The plan is to first do a community survey to see what the population will tolerate,” said CVUSD board president Pat Phelps.
If it moves forward, the district must also find a third party to fund the parcel tax campaign. District money cannot be used for political marketing so local teachers unions, parent teacher organizations, or other groups would be needed.
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