Daily Breeze
A proposal to dramatically hike taxes for restaurants and bars in Hermosa Beach is making its way to the November ballot despite growing opposition from the beach town’s business community. The ballot initiative, pushed by activist Jim Lissner, would overhaul the city’s existing business license fee structure by targeting revenue generated from some of the city’s largest moneymakers - bars and restaurants lining Pier Plaza.
Perhaps still on edge from a contentious local election in November, Rancho Palos Verdes voters have found themselves in the middle of another ballot-box battle - this time, over the seemingly tame topic of a city charter. n March 8, voters will weigh Measure C, which would transform the 37-year-old municipality from a general law city to a charter city, thereby giving it more control over local affairs and potentially more say over its finances.
A rally urging residents to vote no on Proposition 23 drew a crowd of about 100 to a Wilmington park late Thursday afternoon, ending in a protest march to a nearby refinery. The Nov. 2 state ballot measure would suspend California’s 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act - Assembly Bill 32 - until unemployment rates fall to 5.5 percent or lower. Currently, California’s unemployment rate stands at 12.4 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Marymount College was dealt a double defeat in court Wednesday, when a judge ruled against the school on two challenges related to a ballot initiative that would allow the Rancho Palos Verdes campus to expand and add dormitories. In separate hearings on the language of ballot arguments for and against Measure P, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David P. Yaffe sided with critics of the Marymount-backed initiative that will go before voters Nov. 2.
A proposed ballot initiative aimed at barring the state from raiding local government coffers to balance its budget gained steam Monday in Los Angeles. In a rally at City Hall, Controller Wendy Greuel and Councilwoman Janice Hahn endorsed a statewide signature-gathering campaign to qualify the measure for the November 2010 ballot. Officials from other cities and counties expressed support for the measure last week, and more are scheduled to join them in the coming days.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge denied a request on Thursday by the AES power plant in Redondo Beach to reconsider a ruling that slightly modified the language in the city’s upcoming ballot measure. Judge David Yaffe refused to further alter the measure or reconsider his decision to rule against the plant in its argument that Measure UU would impose “double taxation” on residents. The measure will ask residents to change the city code to impose a tax on natural gas usage at AES, which is currently exempt as a utility.
In the wake of its move to loan Terranea Resort $8.2 million in hotel tax revenue, the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council has moved to put a measure on the November ballot that would raise that tax rate. If approved by a majority of voters, the measure would increase the transient occupancy tax - or TOT - from 10 percent to 12 percent, putting the city’s rate in line with other coastal communities with major hotels.