Placentia : Utility Tax Question to Go Before Council Again

The question of whether Placentia residents will have a voice in a recent utility tax increase will go back to the City Council on Tuesday.

A petition with more than 3,000 signatures calling for a referendum on the increase, which raised the utility tax from 3% to 5%, is not valid because the state Constitution bans tax issues from the referendum process, City Atty. John Harper said.

The increase, approved by the council in February and effective last month, raised city taxes on telephone, gas, electricity and cable television bills. The typical resident’s utility tax bill rose from about $4.50 to about $7.50 a month.

Harper studied the legality of putting the tax increase to a referendum after upset residents challenged the council’s right to decide on the increase without public input. When City Council members officially receive the attorney’s opinion at their meeting Tuesday, they may choose to do nothing or to rescind the decision until an advisory vote by residents can be taken.

The latter choice is what Bill Coston, co-chairman of the Right to Vote Committee, which organized the petition drive, is hoping for.

“Our hope is that the City Council will look past the legalisms and follow the will of the voters,” Coston said.

An advisory vote is not a referendum and would not be binding on the council, Harper said.

About 60 residents went door-to-door and walked through shopping centers to collect 3,419 signatures. Of those, 3,111 were validated as being the signatures of registered voters, said Betty Wallis, deputy city clerk.

--Roxana Kopetman