City Income Tax Should Stir Outrage
Zuma Dogg and I have been working over the last few days to uncover more information about "chatter" we're hearing about the City of Los Angeles implementing some type of personal income tax.
Of course there are a lot of reasons why the Mayor or Council would not want to call this an income tax or any kind of tax. One of which is that such a tax is presently, well, illegal.
Tax increases of many kinds without a two-thirds vote of the people in California are prohibited under the terms of Proposition 13 however that hasn't stopped politicians who are able to get a good chunk of left leaning judges to agree with them. When is a pig not a pig? When its a user fee or some other type of cute term that doesn't use the word that ends in x.
So the City - facing a drop in revenues due to their spending like a drunken sailor as well as the downturn in various sectors of the economy - is looking to every chance they can to stick it to you for more dough.
Like the Mayor's garbage fee to provide more cops (it hasn't) these fees (taxes) are gussied up for some feel good cause like police, the children, our environment, etc. However the politicians never seem to explain what happened to the taxes we're already paying for these items and how they can drive the costs of things up so damn much.
Get ready for more of Antonio's and Eric's hands in your pockets. Its not a new idea but the proposal we hear that is being floated is that of a "occupational franchise fee." The idea is that everyone who makes above a certain amount of money pays this tax - oh - uh - I mean fee. Its more or less based on the draconian gross receipts tax that businesses in Los Angeles pay (until they leave for somewhere like Burbank or Santa Clarita or Las Vegas).
Local politics are not sexy and most folks are far more concerned with Hilary or Obama than what our municipal electeds are doing to us. And when they do get interested is more so than what Antonio is doing to screw some bimbo not themselves personally!
Get outraged folks - these people are ruining your city and messing with your lives. They know you don't know it.
Of course there are a lot of reasons why the Mayor or Council would not want to call this an income tax or any kind of tax. One of which is that such a tax is presently, well, illegal.
Tax increases of many kinds without a two-thirds vote of the people in California are prohibited under the terms of Proposition 13 however that hasn't stopped politicians who are able to get a good chunk of left leaning judges to agree with them. When is a pig not a pig? When its a user fee or some other type of cute term that doesn't use the word that ends in x.
So the City - facing a drop in revenues due to their spending like a drunken sailor as well as the downturn in various sectors of the economy - is looking to every chance they can to stick it to you for more dough.
Like the Mayor's garbage fee to provide more cops (it hasn't) these fees (taxes) are gussied up for some feel good cause like police, the children, our environment, etc. However the politicians never seem to explain what happened to the taxes we're already paying for these items and how they can drive the costs of things up so damn much.
Get ready for more of Antonio's and Eric's hands in your pockets. Its not a new idea but the proposal we hear that is being floated is that of a "occupational franchise fee." The idea is that everyone who makes above a certain amount of money pays this tax - oh - uh - I mean fee. Its more or less based on the draconian gross receipts tax that businesses in Los Angeles pay (until they leave for somewhere like Burbank or Santa Clarita or Las Vegas).
Local politics are not sexy and most folks are far more concerned with Hilary or Obama than what our municipal electeds are doing to us. And when they do get interested is more so than what Antonio is doing to screw some bimbo not themselves personally!
Get outraged folks - these people are ruining your city and messing with your lives. They know you don't know it.
Labels: city income tax, eric garcetti, Los Angeles City Council, mayor antonio villaraigosa
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 9/27/2007 08:17:00 AM
21 Comments:
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Sam Gangee, you know that it will never happen. The infrastructure cost to collect it, alone, will sink that idea. It's a ruse. It's being floated along, now, as a threat against stopping the DWP increase. Also, the City can't afford another disincentive for business.
But, they are on a binge to collect fees. Tthey are currently trying to squeeze blood from a turnip at the City Council in other areas. Have anyone noticed the marked increase in "Street Light Area Assessment Districts" around the City? The CC are passing motions of fee assessments for "street light area districts". Actually, I agree with the idea.
What we'll probably see happening, though, is the standard practice of cutting City Services across the board and then pretending that it didn't happen, ie. brownouts for City Services.
Mayor Sam,
You said that so much more excellently than I did. Great post! And 9:05am, good post, too.
I see those Street Light Assesments on the agenda all the time. Can you describe it a little more for me, please!
If you need an issue to fight, fight for local control, for Breakup or Boroughs.
See this:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dcl98Jxq4zc
We have record breaking revenues! How can there possibly be a $300 million deficit?
Will David Fleming sell out the business community again ?
On that part about not raising taxes without 2/3 vote. Are you sure it was not Prop 218 instead of Prop 13?
Have you seen in some areas the city posts notices that street light assessments were not agreed to or not paid and hence there is no service. Does that mean they're not turning on the lights?
The developers and business will always get their cuts, no doubt. But, you just need to work smart and "pick your spots". The grass root structures are already there. Momentum is there. Times are unlike that of 2001. The real problem is that there's no leadership. A "manic" leader is needed.
Why do you think that the Mayor is talking about reworking the Charter? Diversion?
Do you ever listen to Jerry Quigley's "Beneath the Surface" show, 5 - 6 PM on KPFK?
When he signs off the air he says, "I'm out! I'm out! I'm out! I'm out I'm out."
I'm out!
Quigley is out to lunch.
Anything but another tax that hits the homeowners. Already have the trash tax for nothing, proposed gang tax which hopefully won't be voted in (maybe renters can be persuaded that landlords can raise their rents down the line), existing taxes to fund the community colleges -- billions raised that were wasted without the proposed buildings ever being built.
More to the point is that no one is paying attn to Laura Chick's desire to lay out where ALL existing taxes are going before more are proposed.
Also, as with the Jahn gang tax, there is no sensible plan before the tax is raised -- let's raise a tax and then decide how we want to spend it isn't pretty.
Re: no one cares about this stuff, and abuot the Mayor just insofar as who he's banging and scandals: this blog has hastened the rush to the sewer, and also the way it has attacked other CM's personally and gone on vendettas (especially the lowclass ZeeeeDeeeee), no one with any decency listens to this blog.
It is illegal for a city to impose a personal income tax. San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno had a bill two years ago(AB 1690) to allow locals to pass an income tax if half went to pay for cops, but it didn't pass the senate.
Hey, the blog's working good this morning.
I'm not having to type in the !@#$%letters twice for a change.
Did you give some kind of a tuneup?
Well I did this time, so "Strike that Judge Ito".
Elmer Fudd said to fix your leaky faucet....can't you hear the dwp, dwp, dwp.
To save billions of dollars all we need to do is deport all the illegal aliens who are in our schools, using our emergency rooms, filling our jails and are in gangs.
I don't know why the damn federal goverment keeps ignoring this problem, it's not only Mayor V. fault.
It should start with the state and federal government giving fines to employers who hire illegal aliens. If we don't give them jobs they would be gone quickly. It's a very simple solution, the social security admin. already sends out thousands of notices to employers when an employee uses an invalid S.S. number. But there is no fine or punishment for the employer.
@Mayor Sam & zuma dogg:
Description of how the City finances the cost of street lighting operation and maintenance, how
these assessments were calculated, and how this complies with Section 4 of Proposition 218,
Article XiII D of the California Constitution, in regards to the subject street lighting maintenance
assessment.
URL, cut and paste 2 lines:
http://clkrep.lacity.org/
councilfiles/07-1751_rpt_bsl_5-31-07.pdf
Many states have a PIGGYBACK tax, whereby the state collects the taxes and must give them to the counties without touching them.
This is much better than the cities depending on the state for handouts.
Mayor Sam said: "These people are messing with your lives and they think that you don't know it"!
MS...With all due respect, THEY KNOW they are messing with our lives! THEY JUST DON'T GIVE A SHIT!
Today's CityBeat has a good series on transportation issues. Besides the Hall of Shame of 7 who left us in the mess we're in (Waxman, Zev who both bowed to pressure not to take transist to the westside, Tudor- Saliba who messed up the Hollywood subway and got it bad vibes, the "socialist" head of the Bus Riders' Union who got that arch-capitalist Riordan as well as Hahn to believe that only buses could work, a few more -- ), and advice what they can do (Zev: start working WITH the Mayor and other leaders instead of focusing on your turf battles).
To improve the roads, academic "experts" have two remedies: raise gas taxes by 10c/gallon (what's to keep them from being stolen again by Sacramento?), and charging upto $10.00 in tolls/congestion taxes for commuters to use our freeways.
I'm for the tolls, not gas taxes.
California's gas tax is half of New York's. Gas tax has no correlation to gas prices in U.S. Look it up. Hahn and La Bonge revived subway, (not Villar) and also got Expo line approved.
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