Ballot Could Be McClintock’s Vehicle to Ban ‘Car Tax’

If at first you don’t succeed, try the initiative process. That California truism could soon be the strategy pursued by Assemblyman Tom McClintock, who, after failing to garner support in the Legislature last year for a full repeal of the state’s vehicle license fee, is feeling the waters for a statewide ballot drive to accomplish the same goal.

McClintock (R-Northridge) is planning to resubmit his constitutional amendment Monday to kill the so-called “car tax.”

But with the increasingly Democratic face of the Capitol, he is not optimistic it will meet a different fate in 1999.

“The Legislature had an opportunity to repeal the car tax, and didn’t do it,” McClintock said. “I’m going to try again, but I have much more faith in the voters at this point than I do the Legislature.”

State leaders did cut the car tax by 25% earlier this year and included provisions that could slash it even further if state revenue grows faster than expected.

But McClintock is far from satisfied with that compromise. Living up to promises to take his tax cut to the people if necessary, he has assembled a committee to explore chances for success.

If polls determine the measure can pass muster with voters, the committee will try to build a grass-roots network in conjunction with taxpayer groups to help gather the roughly 411,000 signatures needed to make the ballot. The committee is aiming for the March 2000 election.

“We are doing all we can to get the ball moving down the field,” said committee member John Stoos, adding that the group would probably set a goal of 650,000 to 700,000 signatures to ensure success.

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SUCCESSION DEBATE: The big question around Los Angeles City Hall these days is who will replace City Councilman Richard Alarcon.

Among the oft-mentioned possible candidates are Alarcon’s wife, Corina, and two others who are raising eyebrows because of their relative youth: 19-year-old Michael Trujillo Jr., a member of the Commission for Children, Youth and Their Families, and Alex Padilla, a 25-year-old aide to a state assemblyman.

If Trujillo is elected, he would become the youngest council member in Los Angeles history. Trujillo--who turns 20 this month--would beat out Rosalind Wyman, elected to the City Council in 1953 at the age of 22, when her last name was still Wiener. Zev Yaroslavsky was just 26 when he was elected to the council in 1975.

Corina Alarcon, if elected, would be following a tradition of spouses of council members who have run for office. These include Anne Finn, whose husband died in office, and Barbara Yaroslavsky, Zev’s wife. Both failed in bids for council seats.

A more successful spouse was Peggy Stevenson, who was elected in July 1975, taking over the seat of her husband, Robert Stevenson, in the 13th District.

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HIGH DRAMA: It’s not exactly going where no man has gone before, but Assemblyman George Runner was pretty jazzed about being invited to Cape Canaveral to witness today’s planned launch of the space shuttle Endeavor.

The shuttle was to catapult into orbit parts of the International Space Station.

Boeing Co., which manufactures part of the shuttle in Palmdale, asked the Lancaster Republican to join shuttle contractors at Kennedy Space Center to witness the start of so-called Mission STS-88 with a variety of other dignitaries from around the globe. And he didn’t pass it up.

“This is more than just another launch,” Runner said from the legendary NASA facility in Florida. “This is the next step in the history of space exploration. It’s exciting, you know. High drama. An incredible human accomplishment.”

Runner’s aides said the launch was seemingly all he could talk about for days.

“I have to say, he was terribly excited about the whole thing,” said Runner aide Rita Burleson. “He was like a little boy. A lot of people up here [in Lancaster] are really blase about these things because of their work in aerospace, and he kind of drove them crazy.”