Santa Clarita Voters Favor School Taxes for Builders

In early returns Tuesday night, Santa Clarita Valley voters appeared to be favoring six measures that would tax developers up to $6,300 for each new home they build to finance school construction.

“I think the people of the Santa Clarita Valley just got fed up with having the developers force their will on the community,” said Rita Garasi, head of the campaign in favor of the school taxes.

“If the early results are any indication, the community has aggressively said that it values quality education and is willing to fight for it,” she said. She credited a grass-roots community effort coordinated by her volunteer campaign group, Santa Clarita Valley Taxpayers for Responsible Growth, with the tax measures’ success.

But the tax to relieve crowding in the community’s five school districts may never be collected. A representative of two developer organizations said that if final totals show the measures have won, the industry will be back in court today in an attempt to have the tax election declared invalid.

“It was an illegal election and we aim to prove it,” said Richard Wirth of the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California.

Wirth said the tax measures have statewide implications because other school districts that are crowded and need new classrooms may consider developer fees as the way to finance school construction.

Last November, builders spent $270,000 to defeat similar Santa Clarita Valley school tax propositions. The measures narrowly failed to receive the two-thirds vote needed for passage.

This time, however, developers spent only about $13,000 on one mailer and conceded that the election probably would be successful. Instead, they decided to fight their battle against the tax in the courts, Wirth said. He noted that a Los Angeles Superior Court judge who declined to block the election in a lawsuit filed by developers last month told builders to return if the tax measures passed.

The state Supreme Court also rejected a motion by attorneys for the developers’ group to stop the election.

“This is a test case for the entire state,” Wirth said of the planned court action.

The Building Industry Assn. of California will join the Southern California organization in the court effort, Wirth said.

The Santa Clarita Valley districts are the first to attempt to collect more from developers for school construction than the $1.50 a square foot authorized by the state’s voters last November.

Propositions A and B on Tuesday’s ballot in the William S. Hart Union High School District and Propositions C through F in the Castaic, Newhall, Saugus and Sulphur Springs elementary districts, will impose an average of $6,000 in taxes on each new housing unit.

State Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia) has introduced legislation that, if approved, will allow Los Angeles County officials to collect the taxes when developers take out building permits for new housing projects. The legislation would go into effect only if the tax is declared valid by the courts.

The taxes would raise about $300 million to build at least 25 new schools to house a student population that is expected to double to more than 40,000 in the next 20 years. The rates would be adjusted annually for inflation.

The Santa Clarita Valley’s population is expected to increase from 106,000 to almost 270,000 by 2010 because of rapid housing construction, bringing the influx of new students.

Builders maintain that financing for new school classrooms should come from the state and opposed the latest tax measures through an organization called Citizens for State Supported Schools. They said it is unfair to force developers to foot the entire bill for schools. Wirth predicted builders will pass the cost of the tax on to first-time home buyers, many of whom will be priced out of the market with the added cost.

Developers, who failed in a lawsuit to block the election, claim it is invalid because, under state law, school districts do not have independent authority to pass special taxes. Their attorney, Max Halfon, also maintained that the statewide school financing plan approved by voters last November set a maximum of $1.50 per square foot.

Terry Dixon, attorney for four of the school districts, said the state financing plan, which went into effect Jan. 1, does not preclude local districts from levying more taxes to build schools. He said that the 1978 Proposition 13 tax-reform measure authorized school districts and other public agencies to impose taxes for special purposes if approved by two-thirds of the voters.

Santa Clarita Valley educators say they cannot depend on receiving any of that funding. Even with an $800 million school construction bond issue approved by California voters in November, Clyde Smyth, superintendent of the Hart district, said the school housing shortage is so acute throughout the state that the Santa Clarita Valley districts may never receive any of the funds.

Statewide, there are about $3 billion in approved applications from school districts, but only $700 million in state funds now available, he said.

Santa Clarita Valley districts are waiting in line with their requests, Smyth said, but does not expect funds to become available in time to house the anticipated influx of students.

The local school districts already are collecting $1.50 per square foot of new construction from developers, as authorized in a school financing plan passed by voters last November. But Smyth said that fee will raise only a third of the five school districts’ construction needs.

“It’s a real crisis,” he said.