ANAHEIM : Council to Meet Again on Utility Tax

For the third time in eight days, the City Council will meet in an attempt to solve the city’s budget crisis and reach a compromise on how large a utility tax to impose.

Trying to erase a $6-million deficit from Anaheim’s $544-million budget, council members tonight are scheduled to vote on three tax rates--2%, 2.75% and 3%--that would be applied to gas, water, telephone and electricity bills for homes and businesses.

The ordinances include provisions that would eliminate the tax in two years, exempt families with incomes of less than $20,000 a year, and prohibit businesses from being charged more than $50,000 a year per utility meter.

The council in July approved a 4% utility tax, but later Councilman William D. Ehrle changed his mind and voted with Councilmen Tom Daly and Irv Pickler to rescind the tax.

Council members also decided to lay off 51 of the city’s 2,200 employees, cut programs such as the Pearson Park summer plays, eliminate most employee travel and training, and cut back on such in-house items as photocopying and microfilm. Those moves reduced the budget deficit from $14 million to $6 million.

The council rejected a compromise proposed by Pickler that would have set a 2% utility tax. Council members then met Friday in a special session in an attempt to reach a compromise but failed again when the members could not agree on a tax rate.

This came after the Anaheim Municipal Employees Assn., the city workers’ largest union, agreed to postpone for six months a 4.25% raise due on Oct. 1 if the council agreed to a tax of 2.75%.

The union’s proposal would save the city $600,000. City administrators have already agreed unconditionally to delay their 5% raise, which would save another $400,000.

Councilman Bob Simpson and Mayor Fred Hunter have insisted on a tax of at least 2.5%. Ehrle has said he will not go above 2%, while Pickler has indicated that he prefers 2% at most, but would go to 2.5% if necessary to break the stalemate. Daly has opposed any tax, saying the city should eliminate or privatize more city services before imposing the tax.

Despite warnings from city administrators that police services will be curtailed and that senior centers, library branches and recreational programs will be closed if no tax is passed, all five councilmen say they will oppose cuts to those programs.

Administrators estimate that another 150 city employees will lose their jobs if no tax is passed.

The meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. at City Hall, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd.