State Journal: Tax-hike Strategy Snuffed

Struggling to cope with the effects of deep cuts in state education aid, officials of several Southern California school districts this summer turned for help to an obscure 1972 law written to give one community taxing power to buy gas street- lights.

Citing the authority of the hitherto-neglected statute, the districts moved to pad their tight budgets by raising property-tax rates without submitting them to the voters.

Officials' hopes for a brighter fiscal future were quickly snuffed, however, by anti-tax forces, which mounted a vocal public and court campaign...