Santa Clarita Tax Measures Lose; Builders’ Mailers Blamed

Santa Clarita Valley school administrators Wednesday attributed the defeat of six school-tax ballot propositions to a last-minute campaign by developers to defeat the measures.

“The developers spent a heck of a lot of money and they beat us,” said Reed Montgomery, superintendent of the Castaic Elementary School District. “They played hardball and we played softball.”

But a spokesman for a builders’ group that lobbied against the measures termed the measures’ defeat “a victory for the home buyers” who would have paid higher prices for new houses if the measures had passed.

The propositions on Tuesday’s ballot proposed taxes on developers averaging about $6,000 for each new residential unit to pay for school construction in the William S. Hart Union High School District and the Castaic, Newhall, Saugus and Sulphur Springs elementary districts.

School superintendents have projected that at least 24 schools must be built at a cost of $300 million within the next 15 to 20 years because of rapid growth in the area.

The measures narrowly failed to receive the approval by two-thirds of the voters that was necessary for passage. All six received more than 61% of the vote, leading superintendents of the Sulphur Springs and Newhall districts to say that they may place the tax proposals on the ballot again next year.

Newhall Supt. J. Michael McGrath pointed out that the tax was approved by 62.39% of the voters in his district, which in the governor’s race was considered a landslide victory.

“We’re going to have to decide, ‘Do we gear up and try again?’ ” he said.

Sulphur Springs Supt. Robert Nolet said trustees of his district will “strongly consider” placing the tax measure on the June ballot next year.

Argued for State Financing

During the campaign, developers argued that the responsibility for financing new schools rests with the state and predicted that the local taxes, if imposed, would be passed on to the buyers of new homes.

“The failure of the taxes was not a victory for the building industry but a victory for the home buyers who would have paid the tax,” said Richard Wirth, executive director of the Governmental Affairs Council of the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California.

But Nolet said that builders could have absorbed some of the costs and cut their profits. Besides, he said, if new housing prices go up, so will existing property values.

“I don’t think anyone would have been priced out of the market as the developers have claimed,” Nolet said. “Their figure was that the tax would have added $47 to a new home buyer’s payment. A person who could not afford that much more a month would not have qualified for a loan at the lower rate.”

9 Mailings in 5 Days

Nolet said he and his neighbors received at least nine mailings opposing the local taxes in the five days before the election.

“At least the developers have finally spent some money for schools,” he said.

Montgomery and Hart Supt. Clyde Smyth called the mailings a “clever campaign of disinformation.”

Saugus Supt. Charles A. Helmers said he believes the “flyer blitz was a significant factor in swaying 3% to 5% of undecided voters. With them, we could have won.”

All five school administrators said their boards will explore other means of gaining the funds they need to build schools, including money from Proposition 53, the statewide ballot measure approved by voters Tuesday that will provide $800 million for school construction.

Wirth called passage of the state proposition “a victory for schools in the Santa Clarita Valley. The California people spoke loudly and clearly that they agree we have to have state-supported schools.”

He said the state proposition is “more equitable” for both builders and home buyers than the proposed local taxes.

Proposition 53’s approval will enable Santa Clarita Valley schools to levy a $1.50-per-square-foot fee on new housing. But school administrators said the $1.50 fee will generate far less money than the taxes they proposed.