Other cities are faced with raising already high property tax rates in order to develop revenue to pay for big city deficit spending. Raising taxes will drive taxpapers away, further reducing revenue, especially in California , as the trends have shown for the past several years that business after business is leaving the highly taxed-highly regulated-big time anti-business California.
Seattle
Team tells City Council that Seattle can't afford pension plan. Seattle's generous employee-pension system, underfunded by $1 billion over the next 30 years, will require larger infusions from the city treasury or reduced benefits for newly hired workers, a study team told the City Council on Monday.
The $1.8 billion pension fund hasn't fully recovered from its $616 million loss during the 2008 financial crisis and is facing additional strain from the longer life spans of retirees.
The city has stepped up its contributions to the plan, as directed by actuaries, diverting millions of dollars from city utilities and the general fund, the Retirement Interdepartmental Team reported. This year's diversions into the pension fund are $5.5 million higher than last year, and 2014 diversions are expected to be $20.6 million higher than in 2011.
Los Angeles
Potential $50M Property Tax Shortfall Could Lead to L.A. Cuts. Los Angeles County could receive almost $50 million less than expected in property taxes next year, according to the latest estimates, which could lead to cuts in law enforcement, education and other services.
Last year, Assessor John Noguez estimated that the county property tax base would grow by almost $18.7 billion for the next fiscal year. But he revised that figure to $5.1 billion last week.
Property in Los Angeles County was valued at $1.1 trillion last year. Taxes paid on that real estate is the county's largest source of locally generated revenue and helps fund a variety of services and agencies, including the Sheriff's Department, county education office and Fire Department.
Los Angeles County supervisors are scheduled to begin considering their budget next week. The county has an annual budget of about $23 billion.
Supervisors questioned how Noguez's figures could change so drastically.
"I just know that everyone has never seen that kind of a swing in a three-month period," said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. "Something went wrong. Either [the assessor] was either dead wrong in December, or they're dead wrong in March."
The biggest drop occurred in properties that declined in value. In December, Noguez estimated that the tax base would drop by about $2.6 billion because of falling home prices. That number changed to about $13.5 billion in his latest report.
If L.A. wants to come out of this deficit, then I suggest they tax the rich Hollywood types,...after all, doesn't the rich need to pay their fair share?.....Oh, wait a minute, that only pertains to job creating, conservatie rich people."
