League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	Los Angeles County, CA November 6, 2012 Election
	Measure MM Conservation Funding Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority Area 2 Special Tax - 2/3 Approval Required Pass: 13,877 / 68.67% Yes votes ...... 6,332 / 31.33% No votes See Also: Index of all Measures

Arguments For Measure MM

The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority manages the unique system of open space, wildlife corridors, parklands, and trails behind our Encino, Tarzana, and Woodland Hills homes in the Santa Monica Mountains. Unlike most public agencies, the MRCA does not receive ongoing funding from local or state taxes. Measure MM will provide a temporary source of revenue to maintain fire prevention services, ranger patrols, remove litter, and to protect open space and wildlife corridors in our Woodland Hills, Tarzana, Encino hillside communities. Measure MM will also improve water quality in our local creeks and reservoirs. Measure MM will cost homeowners only $19 a year and can only be used to: Provide for improved fire prevention services, including crews to clear dry brush and other fire hazards Protect open space in the hillside portions of the communities of Encino, Tarzana, Woodland Hills Acquire critical open space Increase park ranger safety and security patrols to prevent crimes and vandalism Keep pollution and trash out of local creeks and reservoirs Make needed upgrades and repairs to trails and trailheads The threat of fires is real. Measure MM will reduce the risk of wildfires and prevent drastic cutbacks in fire prevention, safety and security services, and the maintenance of our local open spaces and parklands. Measure MM will ensure that our local parklands, natural open spaces, and streams are preserved for future generations and help maintain property values. Every penny raised by Measure MM will stay in our communities and cannot be taken away by the state or used in other areas or for other purposes. A Citizen's Oversight Committee will conduct annual audits to ensure funds are spent properly and only for the above-listed purposes in the hillside areas of Encino, Tarzana and Woodland Hills. Please vote Yes on Measure MM BOB BLUMENFIELD Member, California State Assembly PAUL KORETZ Los Angeles City Councilmember MARIAN DODGE President, Hillside Federation DAVID R. GARFINKLE President, Tarzana Property Owners ED BEGLEY, JR. ActorlEnvironmental Advocate (No arguments against Measure MM were submitted)

Full Text of Measure MM

The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority ("MRCA") is a local park agency whose members include the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and that is responsible for maintaining and improving open space, parkland and wildlife corridors within the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Zone. Unlike most public agencies, the MRCA and Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy do not receive permanent ongoing funding from local or state taxes. A major challenge the MRCA now faces is that its revenues have decreased significantly. Moreover, in two years the MRCA will lose another $1.6 million per year in funding from Los Angeles County Proposition A, which is set to expire at that time. These dramatic revenue decreases have already forced the MRCA to make difficult reductions in its open space and parkland maintenance services and reductions to its local fire prevention and safety and security services. In order to continue to preserve and maintain extensive open space, parkland, wildlife corridors, natural habitats, lands, waters, and related facilities; and to protect water quality and provide park ranger safety and security patrols and fire prevention services including brush clearing, the MRCA is proposing a local special tax within a community facilities district located in a designated portion of the Santa Monica Mountains west of Interstate 405 and east of the City of Calabasas, as shown on the map accompanying this proposition (the "Woodland Hills, Encino and Tarzana Hillside Areas"). The MRCA currently maintains over 1,000 acres of local open space, parkland and wildlife corridors, in the Woodland Hills, Encino and Tarzana Hillside Areas. The summary of the proposed ballot proposition is: To protect, maintain and conserve local open space, parklands and wildlife corridors; protect water quality in local creeks and reservoirs; improve fire prevention including brush clearing, acquire open space, and increase park ranger safety and security patrols, shall the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority implement a special $19 tax annually for ten years only, with all funds staying in the hillside communitiesof Woodland Hills, Encino, and Tarzana, and require independent citizen oversight and audits? Developed parcels subject to the special tax are those parcels that appear on the annual secured Los Angeles County property tax rolls, and that have been improved for residential, commercial or other purposes. Unimproved parcels within the Woodland Hills, Encino and Tarzana Hillside Area shall be exempt from the special tax. If approved by the voters, the special tax will be used for the purposes of maintaining, improving, servicing, protecting, and preserving open space, parkland, wildlife corridors, natural habitats, lands, waters, and facilities owned or managed by the MRCA within the Woodland Hills, Encino and Tarzana Hillside Areas; and for financing the acquisition of additional open space in the Woodland Hills, Encino and Tarzana Hillside Areas; ("Services and Facilities"); and paying any administrative or incidental expenses thereto, including any costs related to the collection or use of the special tax. The Services and Facilities include, but are not limited to, the protection of water quality, the reduction of the risk of wildfires, park ranger safety and security services, and the collection and accumulation of reserves for the aforementioned purposes. The special tax revenues shall be deposited into a separate account for exclusive use by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, in accordance with Government Code Section 50075.1, and shall be expended by the MRCA according to a plan developed annually by the MRCA's staff and approved and adopted by the MRCA's Board of Directors. A citizens' oversight committee appointed by the Board will review and report annually on the expenditure of the special tax revenues. The MRCA will submit an annual report to its Board of Directors, which includes the amount of special tax revenues collected and expended, and fully complies with the accountability measures established in Government Code Sections 50075 et seq.