STREET-LIGHT VOTE WRAPPING UP.

Byline: Jim Skeen  Staff Writer

LANCASTER - An election regarding a proposed $25 rate hike for street light service will wrap up on Tuesday night with a public hearing before the City Council.

At the opening of the public hearing, the Lancaster City Council will call for any additional ballots not previously submitted and take public testimony on the proposed assessments. When the public hearing ends, the ballot counting will begin.

Election results will be finalized at the council's July 8 meeting.

``We've been upfront with people about this from the beginning,'' said City Manager Jim Gilley. ``It's just like water service. If you want it, you pay for it. If you don't pay for it, it gets shut off.''

As city officials end a municipal subsidy of lighting costs, property owners are being asked to vote for an annual fee increase, from $45 to $70.

The voting will involve all of the city's property owners, approximately 27,000. The election will be broken down into 105 zones.

If a majority in a particular zone votes to approve the tax, the lights will stay on in that neighborhood.

If a zone votes down the proposed tax, the annual fee will remain at $45 there. Street lights on the perimeter of that zone would stay on but lights in the interior would be shut off.

The ballot measure includes a provision for future increases based on the consumer price index for the Los Angeles, Riverside and Orange counties region.

Lancaster officials said the state budget crisis is forcing them to quit subsidizing the street light service. The subsidy, which amounted to $550,000 this year, will go toward street maintenance.

Each new tax assessment or rate hike requires a vote of property owners under Proposition 218, a 1996 ballot measure. After the measure passed seven years ago, Lancaster officials opted to cover the lighting costs with other city funds, giving residents a tax break starting in 1997.

In the past two years, city officials charged the pre-Proposition 218 levels, which did not cover the full cost, and passed lighting subsidies.

By ending the subsidy, city officials say they will free about $550,000 in gasoline tax revenue that can go toward street maintenance.

Tuesday's public hearing will be held at 7 p.m. in council chambers, 44933 Fern Ave.