Chamber Fails to Back Utility Tax Measure

For the second time, the Agoura Chamber of Commerce has declined to endorse a June 25 ballot measure asking voters to uphold a controversial utility tax approved in 1994 by the City Council.

Of the 15-member board of directors, seven voted to oppose the measure, falling short of a majority. Four voted to support the tax, one abstained and three did not return ballots, Brandy Paterak-McCavic, chamber president, said Friday.

Paterak-McCavic, who abstained, said she did so because she does not live or work in Agoura Hills.

The 15-member chamber declined to endorse the measure in another vote taken earlier this year. After that vote, the Agoura Hills City Council asked the chamber to vote again.

Council members say they think the measure would stand a better chance of passing if the influential chamber supported it.

“I’d rather they took a position [in favor of it], but on the other hand, it’s a difficult sell, because it’s a tax, and people don’t like taxes,” Mayor Ed Corridori said Friday.

Members of the chamber board voted anonymously both times, and refused to speak publicly about the vote, Paterak-McCavic said.

Corridori, a businessman who is also chairman of the city’s Economic Development Committee, said some chamber members are afraid they would lose the business of customers who disagree with their positions on the tax.

Barbara Murphy, head of the local anti-tax organization that gathered enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot, said she thinks that chamber members who voted against the tax did so because they think it would be bad for business.

Corridori said that the city’s businesses actually benefit from the tax.

For example, he said, the revenue is used, in part, to improve streets in retail and restaurant districts.

In Agoura Hills, businesses pay a 3.5% utility tax, and residents pay 4%. City officials say local businesses have it easy, compared to, for example, Los Angeles businesses, which pay a 12.5% utility tax.