ANAHEIM : November Vote on Utility Tax Pushed

Citing the expense of a June election, city officials and council members on Wednesday said they will move to include a ballot initiative on the city’s utility tax as part of the November general election.

After a split City Council last August balanced the city’s budget by adopting a 2% utility tax, angry residents insisted that the council promise to place the tax on the June ballot and abide by the results. But city officials and council members said Wednesday that a June vote could cost up to $100,000, so voters will be polled in November, when the city’s next council election is scheduled.

“Nobody wants to see the utility tax on the ballot more than I do, but to place it on the June ballot would be a waste of money,” said Councilman William D. Ehrle, who, after originally voting for a utility tax, changed his mind and voted against it. He now says he wants it repealed.

“If we are going to spend $100,000, I would rather we spend it to reopen neighborhood libraries on Mondays, or on our parks programs, or to put another policeman on the street,” he said.

Councilman Irv Pickler, a supporter of the tax, said that without it the city’s budget would have a deficit in the millions. The tax on electric, water, gas and cable bills raises about $675,000 a month.

“Why should we pay $100,000 to get an answer we already know?” Pickler said. “We need (the tax). The city has functions it has to perform.”

But some anti-tax leaders say the cost of the election could be as low as $40,000 and, nevertheless, that the council should have kept its promise to poll residents in June.

“Between June and November, the utility tax will take $3.3 million out of Anaheim’s economy,” said Rick Vaughn, an insurance agency owner who resigned from the city’s Budget Commission last month to protest the tax. “The whole premise of government, at least in a democracy, is based on rule by the consent of the governed. (The council) should follow through and put the tax on the ballot.”

A June initiative, however, is unlikely because Friday is the deadline for placing a measure on the ballot.

Beverly Warner, election supervisor at the county registrar of voters office, said the fee for adding a citywide ballot measure ranges from about 40 cents to $1 per registered voter, depending on a variety of factors, including the measure’s complexity. Anaheim has about 95,000 voters, so both sides could be right about the cost, although Warner guessed that adding the measure to the June ballot would have cost about $75,000.