City aims to protect local tax dollars

Barbara Diamond

Laguna Beach has joined a coalition that is sponsoring a ballot

initiative to keep the state from picking local pockets without voter

approval.

The City Council voted 4 to 1 at the March 16 meeting to endorse

the 2004 Local Taxpayers and Public Safety Protection Act, an

initiative constitutional amendment that would prohibit the state

from siphoning local government revenues to fund state programs

without a vote of the electorate. The measure also would require the

state to fund mandates it imposes on local governments.

Petitions are being circulated to get the initiative on the

November ballot.

“I do it after business hours,” said City Manager Ken Frank, a

supporter of the measure. “And Gene Felder has been most gracious

about circulating the petitions.”

More volunteers are needed. Frank said he would deliver petitions

or they may be picked up at his office.

“I’d like everyone to think about signing a petition if you

believe in local government services (police, fire and lifeguards)

and capital improvements such as sidewalks and beach access,” Frank

said.

Sufficient signatures must be collected by mid-April to qualify

the initiative for the November ballot. Since the passage of

Proposition 13 in the 1970s, the state has had the authority to

redistribute property taxes collected in California. In the early

1990s, the state balanced its budget by “usurping” property taxes

that had previously gone to cities and counties, according to Frank.

“The City of Laguna Beach loses $2 million a year as a result of

that action,” he said. “Now, they want another $550,000.”

A proposal afoot to shift of portions of the local one-cent sales

tax sales to help the state balance its budget also makes Frank

nervous.

Mayor Cheryl Kinsman said neither property taxes earmarked for

school funding nor state funding for schools would be affected by the

proposed amendment.

The initiative stipulates that the amendment would not change the

School Funding Initiative, Proposition 98.

Supporters also said the amendment would not reduce funding for

other state programs such as highways, It will not raise taxes or

increase funding to local governments.

Text of the initiative was included in the agenda bill approved by

the council and can be reviewed in the City Clerk’s office.