Seniors have until July 31 to sign up for exemption
Senior citizens have less than one month to exempt themselves from a new $225 parcel tax on all properties in Santa Monica and Malibu.
If residents over 65 years old do not apply by 5 p.m. on July 31, the flat $225 fee will appear on their October property tax bill.
Called Measure S on a special June 3 ballot, the parcel tax was passed to help lift local schools out of a multi-million dollar deficit for next year.
By levying the flat $225 tax on all 32,413 parcels in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, school officials expect to generate $6.5 million annually for six years.
Seniors who want to take advantage of the exemption must send copies of their official identification and tax bills to the school district every year for the next six years.
Application forms can be downloaded from the district’s Web site at www.smmusd.org, or obtained from public libraries in either city.
Fourteen percent of Santa Monica and Malibu residents are over the age of 65. But parcel tax supporters say it’s difficult to determine exactly how much of an impact seniors will have on the potential $7.3 million in revenue from the parcel tax. Although officials estimate the tax will generate $6.5 million, $7.3 million is what could be collected based on the number of parcels in Santa Monica and Malibu.
If all of the 13,840 senior citizens in Santa Monica and Malibu’s total population of 96,659 were homeowners and opted to utilize the exemption, that would mean $3.1 million in missed revenue for the schools. But in reality, many of those seniors are renters and some have volunteered to pay the fee even though they don’t have to, supporters said.
Ken Bailey, the school district’s director of finance, said when all the exemptions have been counted, local schools still anticipate $6.5 million in revenue.
The school district is in an area with an assessed value of $20,913,965,574, said Dennis Lucido, a spokesman for the LA County Auditor-Controller’s office. That area includes the cities of Santa Monica and Malibu, as well as a few unincorporated areas in the county.
Santa Monica’s assessed property value is $14,674,294,217 from a total of 22,710 parcels. Single-family residences account for 16,167 of those parcels, 4,222 are residential income properties and 2,321 are commercial properties. Malibu has 6,765 parcels with a total assessed property value of $5,447,008,449. Single-family homes make up 6,157 of those, while 207 are residential income properties and 401 are commercial, Lucido said.
The parcel tax revenue has allowed school officials to rehire dozens of teachers who were laid off in March when the district was facing a $13.7 million shortfall for next year.
Officials were able to bring back even more workers when the cities of Santa Monica and Malibu agreed last month to add to their usual funding of $3 million and $110,000, respectively, with one-time additional contributions of $2.25 million and $380,000.
Community leaders said last week most local seniors still don’t know about the exemption.
“There should be some pro-activeness on the part of the school board,” said Santa Monica City Councilman Herb Katz. “But people really ought to stay informed themselves.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 5, 2003. Read the original PDF.