Local Tax Base Revenues

The Times’ Oct. 27 editorial, “Taxes: a State of Confusion,” accurately describes our illogical, confusing system for collecting and allocating tax revenues, but failed to consider the poor taxpayers’ point of view. For example, how can I know whether to vote for Tuesday’s Irvine school fund measure when I do not know if other funds will be diverted the moment the revenues start pouring in? In one or two years it will be time for another school mesure or we’ll again face draconian program cuts.

Hopefully, Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa’s task force will come up with a logical system where local revenues from property and/or sales taxes support local governments and state revenues from income taxes support state government. Such a system should clearly indicate to taxpayers how much they are paying toward each of the hundreds of existing governmental functions--something that is practically impossible to discover with the current system.

JIM MLADENIK

Irvine

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The current problem with the local tax base will get much worse as a significant fraction of retail sales moves to the Internet. On the Internet, sales taxes and business license fees are beyond the reach of the cities. These two taxes represent about a quarter of all city revenues in Los Angeles.

It is time to reconsider Prop. 13. Changing the annual adjustment factor to 3% from the existing 2% would solve most of the problems.

CHARLES FRANKLIN

Pasadena