AgdaPkt 2003-06-23 - Laserfiche WebLink

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/d.X -6 AB1221 from p age ................ ............................... AB 1221 by Assembly Members Darrell Steinberg and John Campbell proposes to ex- Change 1/2 centof the sales tax with an eqL'valent amount of the property tax. The League's poaition on the bill has been and continues to be "Oppose, Unless Amended ". In discussions with the League over the last month, the bill's authors offered a number of amendments, including making the measure dependent on the passage of an as yet undrafted constitutional amendment protecting local rev- enues. Nonetheless, the League advised the authors over the last few weeks that it still opposed AB 1221 and recommended that it not be moved to the Senate until a study process approved by the League's board of directors could go forward. Intense League /City Lobbying Produced Results Many city officials responded quickly to a League request Wednesday to call or fax their legislators and urge them to vote "no" on AB 1221 on the Assembly floor, or to withhold their vote so the bill would be held in the Assembly. Cities' contract lobbyists also joined with League lobbyists to press this message with legislators. The decision by the authors to place their bill on the Assembly inactive file was announced yester- day, following delivery of a letter from the League requesting this delay. "This result is due to a lot of factors," said League Executive Director Chris McKenzie, "in- cluding strong membership involvement and opposition, excellent staff work by League staff and certain city lobbyists, particularly Anthony Gonsalves and Chuck Bader, and a willingness on the League's part to engage the authors and the numerous advocates for the bill in a constructive dialogue over the next six months. I am very pleased with this result and proud of our members and the excellent staff work by all involved." that the simple concept in the bill, swapping half of cities' sales taxes for a like amount of property tax, was much more complex than sunporters of the bill first believed," said League Legislative Director Dwight Stenbakken. "Because of this complexity, the League urged the proponents to work with local governments to analyze, gather data and more accurately assess the impact of the legislation. The members of the Assembly heard loud and clear from city officials in their districts about the impacts of the bill." The League has established a task force of city officials, government finance consultants, county officials, legislative staff and other inter- ested parties to establish a common understand- ing of the issues presented by the bill. That group is set to hold its first meeting today. The League then plans to ask its Fiscal Reform Committee, chaired by San Diego Council Member Jim Madaffer, to lead the process of analyzing how the bill would impact different cities. "We welcome the opportunity to have a detailed discussion about this measure, but that discussion will take time," said League Executive Director Chris McKenzie. "We are committed to providing a thorough examination of the mea- sure." A copy of the letter sent by the League to the authors is available on the League website, on the Revenue and Taxation page (www.cacities.ora /revandtax), and in the legisla- tive tracking section of the site ( www.cacities.org/ legtracking). "We thank all those city officials who made calls and other contacts with legislators on the bill," said Stenbakken. "It really made a differ- ence." (See also "Major Unresolved Concerns with AB 1221 ", page 7.) Complex Measure Requires More Study "What was becoming increasingly clear was PAGE 6 /PRIORITY FOCUS Visit the League's Official Web Site -- www.cacities.org