HUNTINGTON BEACH : Council to Decide On Cable TV Tax

The City Council is scheduled to vote tonight on a proposed 5% utility tax on cable television subscribers in the city. The council will also consider increasing the trash pickup fee by 90 cents a month.

City officials, struggling to cope with a projected $3.4-million budget shortfall, said cuts in police and fire service can only be avoided if more income is found.

“A new revenue source . . . is needed to continue current staffing levels in the Police and Fire departments,” City Administrator Michael T. Uberuaga wrote in a memo to the council. “The proposed utility tax on cable TV services would generate $750,000 per year.”

Uberuaga said the tax would amount to about $1.50 per month per cable subscriber.

“Cable TV services are ‘discretionary’ expenditures of residents and are, presumably, purchased only by those who can afford the service,” Uberuaga wrote. “The new tax revenue, therefore, would be paid by those who can afford the services and can be avoided by those who cannot.”

Uberuaga said the cable TV tax would not only enable the city to avoid police and fire cuts but would also allow financing of a proposed new police substation in the downtown area.

The council, in a separate vote, is scheduled to consider a staff recommendation to increase the trash pickup fee from $9.85 to $10.75 a month. City staff members noted in a report that the city’s trash-collecting firm has increased its charge.

That cost should be passed to residents, the staff report said, because the city is already facing red ink.

The $189.5-million city budget for 1991-92 will be discussed tonight during a public hearing. The budget is scheduled to be given final council approval on June 17.