Officials weigh parcel tax

Glendale and Burbank school officials acknowledge they have yet to take the necessary steps for a successful parcel tax campaign this year, saying it may be wise to focus on a ballot measure in 2011.

Officials in both districts say they are not ruling out going to voters this year, but it is unlikely.

“I don’t see that we have enough time [for the November ballot]. I think that’d be too aggressive,” said Lori Ordway-Peck, interim deputy superintendent in Burbank Unified. “It’s something we need to talk about. Do we let it sit until we start with our new superintendent, or is it something we need to look at now?”

Burbank Unified will see a new superintendent take the helm this spring.

Officials were without a firm timeline because neither district has commissioned a community survey, which campaign consultants have said is a pivotal instrument that gauges the likelihood of a successful election.

Passing a parcel tax requires two-thirds voter approval, and the surveys typically indicate how much time is necessary for active campaigning, Glendale Unified Supt. Michael Escalante said.

“The survey is ground zero,” he said. “Once you get results of the survey, you get the direction of how much work you need to do in order to be able to do a parcel tax.”

Parcel taxes are a fee assessed on residential and commercial property. They require that funding be tied to specific programs. In Culver City, for instance, voters approved an annual $96 tax for five years that will help fund math, science and art programs.

Successful campaigns are methodical and deliberate, and administrators and board members do not want to repeat the late 1990s, when Burbank voters rejected a roughly $100-million bond measure, Burbank school board President Dave Kemp said.

“If you don’t run it out correctly, your chances of having success goes down in direct proportion to the limited amount of time you would spend on it,” he said.

But delaying now could undercut a vote later, said Edward Bash, the chairman of the volunteer parent group SOS Glendale, which supports a parcel tax.

“People are fired up about it now,” he said. “I think it’s best to harness that energy and keep moving ahead . . . If we were to wait, apathy is going to set in.”

Burbank school officials met with campaign consultants in December. Similar meetings have taken place in recent days at Glendale Unified.

Burbank officials said they expect to choose a consultant before June.

“We have a lot of communities that are saying, ‘Hey, we don’t want to lose music, athletics or art, or small class sizes’ — whatever it is,” Ordway-Peck said. “‘And we’re willing to tax ourselves to keep those things.’ Those are the successful campaigns.”