The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved Measure U for the November 4 ballot, and they are calling it a tax cut. I don’t remember the last time someone asked for my permission to “lower” taxes. Usually after a tax cut is signed, I see a press conference with elected officials telling us what a good job they’ve done and how they’re looking out for the taxpayer. So, why a vote from the L.A. County Board of Supervisors to “lower taxes”?
The Board proposes to lower the utilities tax rate from five percent to 4.5 percent for unincorporated portions of Los Angeles County. But, the Board seeks to expand the scope of what telecommunications services are taxed to just about everything except e-mail, which by law cannot be taxed (mark your calendar for 2014 for the federal sunset of this law). County officials say the revenue lost from the current 5% tax and the revenue gained from the 4.5% tax, should the measure pass, will be a wash. Really?
Measure U sounds to me a lot like Measure S, a City of Los Angeles ballot measure from February of this year. Under Measure S, the City of Los Angeles “cut” the utility tax rate from 10 to nine percent. But, like the above-mentioned County measure, the range of telecommunications services to be taxed was expanded. The end result: The City of Los Angeles received an additional $270 million a year.
Hmmm. And the County of Los Angeles still projects a wash?
What’s tragic is that in 1996, Californians passed Prop 218. This ballot measure requires that all specialized local hikes, like this one, be approved by two thirds of voters. Interestingly enough, by classifying Measure U as a utility tax amendment, this ballot measure only needs 50% plus one vote to pass.
If the Board of Supervisors is really short on money, then it should go to the taxpayers in the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County and ask them for it, not try to pass of a tax hike as a rate amendment.
If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck…it must be a duck.