Hoping to keep up with changing telephone technology while salvaging the city's budget, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to put a $243-million telephone utility users tax on the Feb. 15 presidential primary ballot.
Worried that a pending court ruling could eliminate the 40-year-old tax, the council agreed to ask voters to preserve it and, to ward off future lawsuits, grant the city the power to tax telephone services that have not yet been invented.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, October 18, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 46 words Type of Material: Correction
Telephone tax: An article in Wednesday's California section about the city of Los Angeles' telephone users tax gave the date of the state's presidential primary election as Feb. 15. The correct date is Feb. 5, which is when the tax measure will appear on the ballot.
Hours before the vote, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa persuaded the two final holdouts -- Councilmen Dennis Zine and Greig Smith, fiscal conservatives who represent the west San Fernando Valley -- that the tax is too important to leave to the courts.
Now the city's elected officials expect Villaraigosa to make a similar pitch to voters, telling them that government services will be gutted unless the tax is preserved.
"We really need the mayor to drive home the need for this tax. His city is at stake," said Councilwoman Janice Hahn. "A lot of what he's been charged with, whether it's fixing traffic or hiring cops, is going to depend on this."
Although the tax is now levied at 10%, Villaraigosa asked the council to put a 9% measure on the ballot so city officials can sell the measure as a tax cut. The mayor embraced the strategy after his pollsters told him that a tax cut received a stronger response from voters than did the retention of a tax.
Villaraigosa also pushed to get the measure on the presidential primary ballot after polling data showed that turnout will be slightly higher than in June, providing it with more support. The measure requires only a simple majority for passage.
Still, the timing is less than ideal for tax proponents. The mayor and his negotiating team recently reached a salary agreement that will give a 23% pay hike over the next five years to certain city employees with more than five years' experience.
That agreement has drawn fire from some community leaders, one of whom compared the pay hikes to "going out to a fancy restaurant when you don't have any money."
"You don't give more money and then tell us we have to increase our taxes," said Denny Schneider, who serves on the Westchester-Playa del Rey Neighborhood Council.
The tax campaign also will play out as the council decides whether to approve a plan to hike electrical rates by nearly 9% over the next two years and water rates by nearly 6% over the same period.
