Cable Operators Continue War Against Assessor : Television: They display thousands of post cards they solicited from the public decrying county official’s method of valuing their property.

Orange County cable TV operators continued their public relations war against Assessor Bradley L. Jacobs on Thursday, staging a media event on the steps of the Hall of Administration to provide evidence of what they described as public outrage over their soaring tax bills.

Earlier this year, the county’s 11 cable companies began an expensive media campaign against a new method of property assessment, which increased their taxes by as much as 400%. Industry representatives say they have already begun passing on the tax to customers in the form of higher monthly bills.

On Thursday, cable operators posed for news cameras in front of mailbags filled with thousands of post cards--self-addressed and with postage paid--that customers had been asked to sign and return if they opposed the “unfair new tax.” The slogan “Stop the County ‘Income Tax’ ” was written across a corner of the cards.

“Today we are providing the Board of Supervisors with about 50,000 post cards received from Orange County citizens and businesses complaining about the new assessment method,” Dick Waterman, director of corporate affairs for Times Mirror Cable Television, said.

Times Mirror is the parent company of both Dimension Cable, the county’s largest cable operator, and the Los Angeles Times.

Cable representatives said they received about 10% of the cards they sent out, which they described as an unusually good return for a mass mailing.

Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, however, was unimpressed.

“Anything you send out you expect about that return, which I guess means the public isn’t too excited about it,” Riley said. “I don’t like what they did. Putting a note on their bills to imply there’s something that (the supervisors) can do about their taxes when they know we have no control over the assessor--I don’t think that’s right.”

At issue is a complex method that the assessor began using last year to compute the value of cable company property. As Jacobs explains it, the method takes into consideration how a company’s exclusive service franchise--granted by the county--enhances the value of that property.

The assessor maintains that cable companies have tripled or quadrupled in market value--as reflected in the sales prices of companies that have recently changed ownership--largely because of that monopoly franchise.

Moreover, Jacobs contends that several counties are using a similar method of assessment and that many more plan to adopt it.

The cable operators, who filed suit against the assessor last month, contend that no other jurisdiction is taxing them as aggressively as Jacobs, and that his method is illegal and discriminatory. They argue that their businesses have increased in value largely because of intangibles, such as good management and the goodwill of customers.

Jacobs declined through a deputy assessor to comment Thursday. In a press release from his campaign headquarters several weeks ago, however, he charged that “Big Cable” was lying to the public.

Jacobs, overwhelmingly reelected Tuesday, has also charged that the industry has tried to place unfair political pressure on him by lobbying county supervisors to deny him money to defend the assessments in court.

At the news conference, cable representatives also released a letter from state Sen. Frank Hill (R-Whittier) that chastises Jacobs for imposing an “incredible tax burden on cable customers” and decries his “distortion of the assessment process.”

With backing from the cable industry, Hill authored a bill two years that called for limiting cable tax assessments.

The cable industry cause has been taken up by state Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach). Last month, Ferguson announced that he would offer legislation aimed at protecting the industry from the new assessment method.

Over the past two years, campaign financing records show, Hill has received $7,000 in contributions from the cable industry and Ferguson has received $750.