City Manager Lyman Cozad is assuming that there will be a 25% increase in assessed valuation which should make budgeting easier for 1976-77, but will not result in a lower tax rate.
Due to the increased property tax assessments throughout the State, the $1750 exemption will begin to disappear. This will hit lower income home owners hardest.
For the fourth year Arcadia property tax rate has been set at $.94 per $100.00 assessed valuation. This is the lowest it has been since 1914 when it was $.60 The highest rate was $1.98 in 1945.
Supervisor Schabarum joined with two other board members asking Assessor Alexander Pope to mail out property tax re-evaluation notices immediately so people will know before June 6 primary and they vote on Propositions 13 and 8.
There will be no summer school in the Arcadia Unified School District due to the passage of Proposition 13 limiting property taxes to 1 percent of the assessed valuation.
The Arcadia Tax Reform Committee will present signed petitions to the City Council re requested repeal of 3 ordinances levying assessments on street sweeping and sewer service, and an increase in the utility users' tax from 5% to 7%.
Local schools ranked in annual financial report compiled by the office of the Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools. Areas included: teacher/pupil ratio; assessed valuation; text book costs; etc.
Mayor Floretta Lauber and other City Council members will go before the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to ask them to cut the County tax rate.
California taxable sales topped all records in the 2nd quarter of 1978, totaling $28.4 billion. Arcadia taxable sales were: retail transactions $59,331,000; total: $67,076,000.
The Arcadia Tax Reform Committee has officially been formed and will petition the City Council to rescind the new sewer and street-sweeping levies and the increase of the utility tax from 5% to 7%.
The City of Los Angeles plans to file a suit against Los Angeles County and welcomes other cities to join in a class action suit to force the County to tax residents of unincorporated areas directly for services provided. This would, in effect, lighten the burden on incorporated cities and residents.
Herb Fletcher asked the Arcadia City Council to file a class action suit against the county on behalf of city property owners. City Attorney Liberto gave an opinion that there is no legal authority for the city to bring such a suit.
Arcadia teachers picketed the open house at Arcadia High School to protest the 1978-79 raise offered by the Arcadia Board of Education. The teachers claim they received a 3.5% salary adjustment (vs. the average San Gabriel Valley increase of 5.5%) while the Board claims a 5% increase retroactive to December 1, 1978.
Arcadia, along with several other communities in the San Gabriel Valley, face termination of animal control services now rendered by the San Gabriel Valley Humane Society. This agency will discontinue services as of June 30, 1978.