Santa Clarita to Consider Roads Ballot Measure

The Santa Clarita City Council has agreed to consider placing on the November ballot a measure that would increase annual property tax bills between $75 and $200 to build new roads.

The council, however, carefully avoided endorsing the tax increase originally proposed last week by the Santa Clarita Valley Transportation Committee, an offshoot of the Santa Clarita Valley and Canyon Country chambers of commerce. The council also agreed Tuesday night to discuss the proposal with committee representatives Feb. 2.

Lou Garasi, a committee spokesman, said Wednesday that the committee is not asking the council to endorse the politically delicate measure. The committee merely wants the council to put the proposal before the voters and to spare the committee the time-consuming task of collecting signatures to win a spot on the ballot, he said.

The proposed tax would involve current and future development in the city and unincorporated portions of the Santa Clarita Valley, Garasi said.

The committee will also ask the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to place the measure on the ballot, he said.

Councilwoman Jo Anne Darcy, also a field deputy to Supervisor Mike Antonovich, said the supervisor and officials in the Department of Public Works are receptive to the idea.

The tax increase would last 25 years and raise about $41 million from existing homeowners by 2010. Garasi said another $115 million to $200 million would be raised from taxes on future development.