Alhambra : City Suing for Tax Monies

The city has gone to the state Supreme Court to recoup some of the property taxes it lost to the state.

The city has filed suit against Gov. Pete Wilson and the state, asking the court to declare as unconstitutional the diversion of property taxes from cities to fund public education.

“The (City) Council is concerned that this diversion of local revenue by the state may make it extremely difficult to fund local police and fire services,” City Atty. Leland C. Dolley said.

In addition to property tax revenues, the city is asking the Supreme Court to order the state to return to cities their former redevelopment fund allotment and cigarette tax revenues.

The state’s $57-billion budget, passed last September after months of negotiations, took away a chunk of cities’ property tax revenues, in addition to redevelopment funds and cigarette tax revenue, to fund a multibillion-dollar budget shortfall. Some of these revenues from the cities were used for public education.

City Manager Julio Fuentes said Alhambra lost $600,000 in property taxes, $602,000 in redevelopment tax money and $134,000 in cigarette taxes.

Next year the state is planning to take more money from the cities. “The city stands to lose $1.2 million in property tax revenues next year, while the redevelopment agency could lose as much as $1.4 million,” Fuentes said.

He said the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in San Francisco, has the full support of the council, which approved it in a recent closed session.

The lawsuit charges that the transfer of property taxes and redevelopment tax monies violates the state Constitution, which requires that a city be able to raise sufficient revenue to provide essential public health and safety services.

“It is the first lawsuit of this kind by a city, but a Ventura taxpayers organization has filed a similar suit,” said Ed Fong, a spokesman for the state controller’s office.