While all of us have watched the financial melt down, families in danger of losing their homes, the rising cost of food and school tuition our local elected officials have been busy finding ways to make the local residents pay another $26 million in new taxes. They have done it very quietly within the last month, even using the guise of saying they are really lowering your taxes.

The Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District had a meeting on July 26,2011, at 11:00 A.M. at 1955 Workman Mill Road, Whittier. The time and place may not have been convenient for you to attend. Not to worry the Board of Directors consists of the mayor of the City of Santa Clarita Marsha McLean, City councilmember Laurene Weste and Supervisor Michael Antonovich.

Remember the $500 million plan to correct the chloride problem in the Santa Clara River which was reduced to a mere $250 million by eliminating the brine line to the ocean and dumping the salt into old wells? The public made enough fuss at the public hearing and that plan was not approved.

This time it was just Item 4 on the agenda “Authorization Preparation of Facilities Plan, Environmental Impact Report and Design of Facilities to Comply with Final Effluent Chloride Objective of 100mg/L at Saugus and Valencia Water Reclamation Plants (WRPs)” estimated cost of $21 million. The board approved the action.

There was no written staff report. The $21 million is for the design and environmental documents for a plan that has not been presented to the public. No estimate of the total cost or who will pay.

Neither the Valencia nor Saugus Reclamation Plant, you may know them as sewer plants, currently remove the chloride or salt from the sewage.

Since your Sanitation Board is allowing the sewage discharge from the development of Newhall Ranch to be dumped into our Valencia Sewage Plant till the year 2024 there is little chance of meeting the 100mg/L chloride limit without a very expensive treatment facility being added to our sewage plants.

They have already increased our sewer bills for the next three years while lowering the connection fees for developers. At that meeting Laurene Weste requested a program that would allow the developers to not pay until the houses were built. With such a plan the board will be able to keep increasing our sewer rates to cover the major portion, if not all, of the unidentified plan.

So much for transparence from our elected officials. No concerns for the families that are struggling to just keep their homes.

I know I said $26 million and that only covers $21 million. The $5 million is just another of the creative Landscape Maintenance Districts that the City of Santa Clarita City Council love to add to the taxes in the city.

At the June 28 city council meeting an item was placed on the consent calendar Landscape Maintenance District Resolutions. Everything on the consent calendar can be approved with out discussion unless a member of the council or the public pulls an item for discussion.

Landscape Maintenance District annexations, detachments from, creation of new zones, dissolution of existing zones and assessment rate adjustments initiate a Proposition 218 assessment ballot. All of the above were listed on the staff report. The city council approved sending the ballots.

In July ballots were mailed to 16,879 parcels, 5957 ballots ask property owners to annex in to a zone, 2293 ballots ask property owners to vote to establish a Newhall LMD zone, and 8,629 ballots proposed changes to the assessment which would lower the rates.

So where is the problem, they get to vote and 8629 will have their rate lowered. Great deal right. Not really. A Proposition 218 election requires a majority protest to fail. What better way to prevent that than lower over half of the ballots by a small amount. Who is going to vote against a lower tax? A small price to pay to get $5million.

The city doesn’t care because the assessment rate will be increased each fiscal year by the annual percentage change in the Consumer Price Index without a vote. This is the tactic they have used in many other elections along with a creative Equivalent Benefit Unit Rate that weights the vote.

In the FY 2011-2012 Max Costs apportionment Northbridge takes the biggest hit with $1,827,061 million out of the $5 million, Northpark is next with $736,684.

There is a Major Thoroughfare Medians Zone; various parcels are being annexed into this Zone. While the city has recently presented a $750,000 median project and a future beautification project on Lyons Avenue to be paid for by the city’s Landscape Maintenance Districts they haven’t mentioned this election.

The public hearing is the same night that the ballots are counted, 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 13, 2011.

We need open, honest government now more than ever. The people have a right to be informed not deceived by political tricks.

Cam Noltemeyer

Cam Noltemeyer is a local resident and board member of the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment. Her commentaries represent her own opinions and not necessarily the views of any organization she may be affiliated with or those of the West Ranch Beacon.