City Cable TV Tax Up for Final Approval : Revenue: Approval would add about $1.50 monthly for basic service in Huntington Beach. Other cities are watching.

Despite a two-week protest led by a cable television company, the City Council is scheduled to give final approval tonight to a controversial new tax on cable television subscribers.

The new fee will add about $1.50 to the monthly cost of basic cable service.

Other cities are watching the outcome, according to the League of California Cities, because the cable TV fee is one of the few new revenue sources available to budget-starved municipalities. Only two other cities in Orange County--Placentia and Westminster--currently impose a fee on cable TV use.

Cable firms fear that if Huntington Beach--the county’s third largest city--adopts a cable TV fee, other cities may follow. Anaheim on Tuesday night will consider a 4% fee on cable TV as one of its options for next year’s budget.

In Huntington Beach, the City Council two weeks ago decided that the cable TV fee is needed to prevent cuts in the Police and Fire department budgets. The council’s initial vote was 5 to 2, with the minimum number of affirmative votes required to impose a new fee. If that majority again supports the fee Monday night, it will become law and take effect in July.

Since the first vote, cable television officials have launched a campaign that aims to reverse the council’s decision.

Mayor Peter M. Green, however, said he does not think that the effort has been successful.

“I haven’t seen anything that has changed my mind, and I don’t think any other council members are going to change their votes,” Green said.

He predicted that the controversial fee will be enacted, even though opponents have denounced the measure as being unfair. One resident who addressed the council last week even branded the proposed fee as “evil.”

Paragon Cable, which serves the city, has used ads and direct mail to urge city residents to protest the new fee.

The union that represents the city’s firefighters also has denounced the proposal. Union officials have said the City Council has unfairly tried to “sell” the new fee to the public by linking it to fire and police service.

But, in rebuttal, City Administrator Michael T. Uberuaga noted that all other city departments face reductions because of an income shortfall. Uberuaga noted that the City Council directed him to find a revenue source to prevent any cuts in the Police and Fire departments, and he said the cable TV fee was what he recommended.

The two council members who opposed the cable TV fee acknowledged that the city faces a budget shortfall next year. “But I think the city should use its (fiscal) reserves rather than passing this fee,” said Councilman Don MacAllister. The fee is also opposed by Councilman Jim Silva.

The five council members who supported the fee--Green, Grace Winchell, Linda Moulton-Patterson, Earle Robitaille and Jack Kelly--all said that they are reluctant to impose any new fees. But they said they believe that the cable fee is necessary to prevent erosion of police and fire service.