A number of months ago, the City of Santa Clarita initiated a two tier park fee system at some of the City’s parks to penalize those in the un-incorporated areas around the City. Some that live in the City and even other states seem to feel that this is just because the residents of the un-incorporated areas do not “pay taxes to Santa Clarita”.
In a recent column that Darryl Manzer wrote for the local fish wrap, he chastises some of us who live outside the City of Santa Clarita for complaining about the City. He writes that; “if they don’t live inside the city of Santa Clarita, don’t pay taxes to Santa Clarita, don’t want to talk reasonable about annexation to Santa Clarita, then they should just stop complaining about Santa Clarita”.
I completely disagree with Manzer and other individuals who think this way for the mere fact that residents in the un-incorporated areas are contributing tens of millions of dollars in sales tax revenue to the coffers of the City. This is one reason why a complete economic impact study needs to be done on the contribution that, at least, the West Ranch communities have been making to the City annually.
What would the City managers think if everyone in the un-incorporated areas just stopped shopping within the City of Santa Clarita? Or better yet, what if there was an effort to not buy new cars and other big ticket items in the City? That type of action would have a devastating impact on the City.
So, for anyone to say that the residents just outside the City don’t have a right to speak out about various issues that impacts them is just plain ridiculous. Especially coming from a guy like Manzer who lives in the Tidewater area of Virginia! It is becoming increasingly clear that Mr. Manzer is a mouthpiece for other interests in the City that don’t have the guts to speak for themselves.
I also need to take offense with Darryl’s assertion that some us “don’t want to talk reasonable about annexation”. This is simply not true; the West Ranch Town Council had started a series of meetings with the City regarding annexation two years ago. It was the City that did not want to follow through on scheduling continued discussions. Annexation is a complex topic that can not be taken lightly and will require intelligent dialogue.
Unfortunately, it appears that Mr. Manzer is in the same camp as Councilman Frank Ferry in that he believes that residents in the un-incorporated areas around the City should just jump blindly into annexing in to the City. That seems to be what he means by “talk reasonably about annexation”.
Although I don’t agree with Darryl’s recent column, I do have to thank him for his recent piece that my friend and neighbor passed onto me. It highlighted the fact that before any new annexation discussions were to start up again we will absolutely need to have an economic impact study done on exactly what financial contribution the residents of the un-incorporated areas are already making to the City of Santa Clarita. This type of economic information should have an important bearing on any annexation discussions. That was no lump of coal for us living outside the City or for us bloggers; it was a present, thanks Darryl!
Dave Bossert
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