Proponents of a proposed $150 million bond measure to preserve open space have come up just short of the needed signatures to place it on November's ballot, according to state elections chief Amy Naccarato.

The open-space proposal is the first test of the state's new initiative law, and critics of the initiative process are blaming the Utah Legislature for the initiative's likely demise by making it nearly impossible for issues to get on the ballot.

"I find it remarkably unfair and purposefully difficult for the people, and I say people with a capital P, to initiate legislation in Utah," said Lisa Watts Baskin, an attorney who has lobbied for reforms in Utah's initiative law. "The mean-spirited legislators accomplished what they wanted to accomplish to annihilate the process."

Proponents of the initiative, however, aren't willing to throw in the towel. They will be looking at the rejected signatures to see if they were improperly disallowed. The group then will take their case to the Utah Supreme Court.

"We are still very confident our petition initiative will be on the ballot," said Amanda Smith, president of Utahns for Clean Water, Clean Air & Quality Growth. "Yeah, we wished for a clear green light today, but this process is meant to be difficult."

Proponents collected more than 95,000 signatures for the ballot initiative — well above the state's minimum threshold of 76,180.

Utah law, however, requires that petitioners must gather signatures of at least 10 percent of registered voters in 26 of 29 state Senate districts. Latest numbers by the state Elections Office show backers managed to collect the required number of signatures in only 24 of the 26 required districts.

"We have declared it insufficient," Naccarato said Tuesday, the deadline for counties to submit the certified signatures to the Elections Office.

Supporters, spearheaded by the Utah Nature Conservancy, launched the initiative after lawmakers during the 2004 session refused to take action on a similar open-space proposal by Rep. Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake. The group spent nearly $300,000, most of which was to pay a public relations firm that paid workers $3 for every signature collected.

"We feel we could not have been more strategic," Smith said. Proponents gathered more than 130,000 signatures to compensate for any invalid signatures.

The measure would call for an increase in the Utah sales tax by .0005 percent to authorize a $150 million sales tax revenue bond that would have been paid off over 10 years. If approved by voters, it would cost Utah taxpayers about a penny on every $20 purchase.