The Perris City Council Tuesday certified the results of the Nov. 7 special measure election.
“As a result of the election, Measure A did not receive sufficient votes, and therefore was not approved by the voters in the city of Perris,” Nancy Salazar, city clerk, said.
Of the 36,145 voters registered for the election, fewer than 10% cast a ballot, according to data from the Riverside County Registrar of Voters. Of those that did, 52% voted in favor of Measure A — short of the two-thirds required to pass the special tax measure.
“We recognize that the [turnout] numbers are pretty consistent with what we’ve seen in the past [for special elections],” Stephen Hale, public information officer, said. “So, we’re not shocked by that.”
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The tax was intended to target warehouse operators in an effort to address the increased cost of road maintenance due to heavy truck traffic and would not have been paid by individual residents or visitors.
If the measure had passed, the city of Perris estimated the special business license tax would have brought in an estimated $4 million annually that would have been used for the improvement, operation, maintenance and repair of city-maintained public roads.
Ahead of the election, Deputy City Manager Ernie Reyna said the city spends about $3 million annually to repair roads damaged by truck traffic. Hale said the city had not yet determined how it will address the growing cost of road repairs going forward.
“We’re just kind of still assessing things and exploring options,” Hale said. “And we’ll see after the first of the year how the council decides to move forward with that.”
Hale said the city estimates it spent about $150,000 on the election.
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