Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Santa Clarita Sales Tax Revenues Increase 15% : Recovery: The city’s finance director attributes much of 1994’s rise to construction related to the Northridge earthquake.

Sales tax revenue for the city in 1994 jumped 15% from the year before, with much of the increase attributed to earthquake-related construction activity, officials said Tuesday.

City businesses generated $12 million in sales tax revenues last year. Although city finance director Steve Stark said much of that is due to earthquake reconstruction, other categories showed increases as well.

Retail, food products, transportation and business to business transactions all rose--an indication that revenues will not very likely taper off once quake work has wrapped up.

“We think that earthquake repair has slowed down, but a lot of new retail is moving into Santa Clarita,” Stark said.

The increase is important for two reasons. First, it signals a strong and growing local economy. Second, the flow of sales tax revenues is a critical component of municipal budgets since cities get a percentage of every sales tax dollar collected.

“We believe that we’ve lost sales in the past due to limited retail, but now we are filling the demand that was there” Stark said.

New stores include a Home Depot in Canyon Country and a series of small retail shops in the Valencia Town Center.

“The economy generally has been on the plus side as a result of investment in home improvement kinds of things,” said Michael Haviland, marketing and economic development manager for the city.

“When the Northridge mall closed down we began to have people make trips up [to the Valencia mall] who live close enough but wouldn’t have otherwise ventured here,” Haviland said. “We’ve been able to keep some of them.”

But as retail within city limits increases and brings in more revenue, city officials and local residents have expressed some concern about stores springing up just outside the city limits and draining potential revenue.

“That sales tax goes to the county,” Stark said. “I would say that the city is concerned about retail that develops outside city limits because . . . we get none of the revenues generated by that.”

Plans are already in the works for construction of a massive shopping complex that would include a Walmart and Circuit City just west of Santa Clarita.

The Santa Clarita Organization for the Planning of the Environment, an environmental watchdog group, recently filed an appeal to block construction of the complex.

But even if retail stores are built outside the city, Haviland said, some of the shops could serve to keep businesses in the Santa Clarita Valley area and therefore bolster shopping within the city.

“It reinforces shopping here. The public can acquire most of their goods and services here,” Haviland said. “So it’s more of a secondary impact.”