Infrastructure Tax Will Be On Ballot

By Harry Saltzgaver
Executive Editor

Long Beach residents will be asked to invest in the city’s future with a $571 million bond paid for with a parcel tax.

At least that’s the way Mayor Bob Foster and the majority of the City Council characterized a bond to pay for infrastructure replacement and repair. The council voted 8-1 Tuesday to put the bond issue and parcel tax on the Nov. 4 general election ballot.

To pass, the initiative must receive a two-thirds majority. It guarantees that the money will be spent only on infrastructure listed in the ordinance. The parcel tax is set at $10 a month ($120 a year).

“I want to emphasize that you will see what you are getting for this,” Mayor Foster said when introducing the bond issue, which his office prepared with the help of the city manager and other staff. “What we’re asking is for all of us to pay for this, to make us a far better city… This has been discussed since 2003. We all know there’s a need; we just need the money to do it.”

Fifth District Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske was the only council member to vote against the proposal. She said that, after a town hall meeting Monday night, it was clear that her constituents would not support a parcel tax. She argued for a delay until Aug. 5, and said after the meeting that she would introduce a series of “fiscal accountability” City Charter measures to go on the November ballot.

"It was abundantly clear that the residents … want the city to put into place fiscal accountability measures before we ask them to pay a parcel tax," Schipske said. "I am putting forth the following fiscal accountability measures that would revise our City Charter and put in place some much needed reforms. I encourage my council colleagues to support these measures and to add others that would help clean up the financial mess this city faces."

Her proposals would require a reserve fund, create an elected official salary board, set a 15% transfer annually from the Gas and Water departments and require all council office budgets to be the same.

Those proposals will be on the Aug. 5 council agenda. Aug. 8 is the deadline to seek ballot measures.

While the council can take action Aug. 5 and beat the deadline, Schipske’s effort to delay a decision on the parcel tax was opposed by both other council members and the city manager. West said that if any changes were requested on Aug. 5, there would not be time to get revisions to the Los Angeles County clerk.

“I think we all know this is not a perfect plan,” Third District Councilman Gary DeLong said. “I suppose if, given the chance, we could all come up with nine perfect plans, all different. This is not new. We’ve been talking about this for years. I say that it is time to move forward on this.”

Other council members agreed that more discussion might help, but that it was time to move forward. Details will be discussed between now and the election.

“I would have preferred to see a study session that never happened,” Seventh District Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga said. “We could have more meetings, more hearings. But it is our job to go out and explain this proposal now.”

Two commercial property owners, from the Arco Center and Shoreline Square, said they would oppose the parcel tax because the cost would penalize commercial property owners and their tenants. The estimated tax on those two buildings would be about $80,000 a year each.

Finance Director Lori Ann Farrell said that the tax on commercial property, 8.8¢ per square foot on improved space and 7.7¢ on unimproved, is based on the average square footage in residences so the tax would be equitable.

Uranga said it was not time to start arguing about how the money would be spent — until the bond issue is passed. She amended the motion to add a citizens oversight committee to help oversee the way money is spent and how projects are prioritized.

The committee would have 11 members, with recommendations from each council member and appointments from the mayor with council approval. Its creation is part of the ballot language.

Public Works Director Mike Conway said that the proposed projects include repair or replacement of all streets graded as failed or very poor (23% of all the city’s streets), 160 miles of sidewalks needing repair and virtually all of the city’s alleys.

Next on the priority list is public safety buildings, particularly fire stations. The proposal would replace nine fire stations and repair 14 others, including addressing gender equality facility issues to accommodate female firefighters. A new East Division police substation and a permanent police academy also are on the list.

Other projects to be paid for include replacing 11 community centers in parks and repairing 19 others, 20 public restroom repair and replacements, repairs to several branch libraries, replacing one branch and replacing the main library.

First District Councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal said she was strongly supportive and asked how far the council members could go in campaigning for passage. City Attorney Robert Shannon said that there is little restriction on how the council advocates for an issue, but that there are severe restrictions on use of city facilities or city money for campaigns.

Part of the ballot language exempts seniors and those with disabilities from the parcel tax. While there was some discussion of altering that language, it remained as a class exemption.

Calls for more communication between business owners and City Hall, as well as residents and City Hall, will be answered as the campaign to pass the bond issue begins, according to Foster.

“Let’s be frank — this is going to take a two-thirds vote to pass,” the mayor said. “It’s going to take a lot of education and a lot of convincing in order to get this passed.”

Earlier Tuesday, the council passed with little discussion another measure to be on the November ballot. That proposition would update the Utility Users Tax charged on telecommunications. The UUT rate would remain the same at 5%.

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