Road-Tax Proponents Circulate Petitions in Santa Clarita Valley

Santa Clarita Valley business leaders have begun circulating petitions seeking public support for a proposed bond measure that would add from $75 to $200 to property-tax bills to build and improve valley roads.

Lou Garasi, president of the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce, said Tuesday that proponents hope the petitions will persuade the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to join the Santa Clarita City Council in placing the measure on the Nov. 7 ballot.

Garasi said the Canyon Country and Santa Clarita Valley chambers of commerce launched the petition drive in unincorporated sections of the valley at the request of Supervisor Mike Antonovich. Although Antonovich has shown interest in the bond proposal, Garasi said, he has not said he will support placing it before voters.

The Santa Clarita City Council last week approved an agreement drafted by city and county staffs to create a joint-powers authority to administer taxes collected to pay off the 25-year bonds. The agreement must be approved by the supervisors because the tax would be levied on property in unincorporated areas of the valley.

It will cost about $110,000 in administrative and legal fees to prepare the bond measure for the November election. If the measure passes, the bonds will pay off those fees. If the measure loses, Santa Clarita and the county will have to split the costs.

The chambers did not have time to launch a house-by-house petition drive. Instead they have mailed 2,000 petitions to registered voters in neighborhoods suffering from chronic traffic congestion, said Connie Worden, a city planning commissioner and bond measure proponent.

Each petition has room for just four signatures. Worden said organizers hope that residents will sign the petition and perhaps gather signatures from a few neighbors and mail them to the Santa Clarita Valley Transportation Committee, an offshoot of the two chambers of commerce.

Garasi and Worden said they are hoping for at least 200 signatures.

Garasi and Worden admitted that collecting signatures through the mail is unorthodox and politically risky because it asks residents to not only sign but mail their petitions. If the response is poor, supervisors may decide the issue would not pass in November.

It would be much easier to gather signatures in public places, such as shopping centers, but time is short and the petition drive must target registered voters in the unincorporated valley, Garasi said. There are no major shopping centers outside the city limits.

Garasi predicted that growing frustration over traffic will encourage people to mail in their petitions. “If they are upset with traffic congestion, they’ll be willing to spend 25 cents,” he said.