City Hits at Property Tax Repeal Measure

The City of Monrovia has released a press release saying that a measure to repeal a 60-year-old property tax used to pay pensions "may be viewed as unconstitutional and counterproductive" and would, according to Mayor Mary Ann Lutz, "cut another $4.2 million from the budget or [force the city to] look for alternative funding sources."

When city officials talk about the measure being unconstitutional, they seem to mean that it would be unconstitutional for the city to arbitrarily quit paying the contractually-binding pensions that the city owes. And since the pensions legally need to be paid in full, if you cut the tax used to pay the pensions then the money to pay them would have to come from cutting something else.

Mayor Lutz suggested that this could mean "closing the new Monrovia Public Library or contracting with Los Angeles County for police and/or fire services."

Full press release here: http://bit.ly/998KpN

- Brad Haugaard