By Wayne Lusvardi, Chairman, Citizens for Responsible Government

Q.  Who can we believe about whether Measure D is an Internet tax?  The City says it isn’t an Internet tax and the opponents say it is.  The City says it amended Measure D to exempt taxing the Internet.   Who can we trust?  
 
A.   Measure D has been established as an Internet tax by the Superior Court, by public statements made by the City's own law firm, by the City Council's own refusal to just amend Measure D to exempt the Internet before it was finalized, and by letters to both of
California's U.S. Senators from Mayor Bogaard.  Moreover, the City’s confusing amendment to Measure D only exempts “Internet access” not “Internet usage.”   
 
First, before the wording of Measure D was finalized by the Pasadena City Council, Citizens for Responsible Government demanded that the ordinance be amended to forever exempt the Internet from taxation.  The City Council refused to do so.

Second, in December 2007, the City of Pasadena took Citizens for Responsible Government (CRG) to court to contest the wording in its Rebuttal to the Argument for Measure D in the L.A. County Voter Pamphlet.  The City of Pasadena did not challenge, nor did the Superior Court Judge strike out, the wording in CRG’s Ballot Rebuttal that Measure D is an internet tax.  Thus, the statement that Measure D is an Internet tax passed Court scrutiny. 
 
Third, Pasadena Mayor Bogaard has written letters to U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein opposing a permanent Federal moratorium on Internet taxes and advocating a tax on Internet access. Measure D is an Internet tax that could be imminently imposed on Pasadenans by the new Democratic Party controlled Congress soon after the national elections in November 2008. 

Moreover, attorneys for the law firm that wrote Measure D for the City of Pasadena publicly admitted in local newspapers and in videotaped testimony before the Sierra Madre City Council that Pasadena ’s Measure D is an Internet tax.

The Pasadena City Council passed a confusing amendment to Measure D after its wording was finalized for the election ballot stating that it was never its “intent” to tax “Internet access” and assured that the City would put any future Internet tax to a future vote.  But “intent” is not legally binding and it is not “Internet access” but Internet usage” that would be taxed and which is of utmost concern to taxpayers. 
Q. Is there a City financial emergency requiring a special election costing taxpayers $432,000 for all the mailers, meetings, and ads you have received in the mail about Measure D?  Could there be cutbacks in City services and staff without Measure D?     
 
A: No, there is not a City financial emergency nor would essential City services be cut if Measure D is defeated resulting in a loss of $10 million in tax revenues.  
Last year Pasadena ran a $26 million General Fund budget surplus.  A $10 million loss in tax revenues if Measure D is defeated would merely result in a budget surplus of $16 million.  What the struggle over Measure D is all about is not a financial emergency, but whether the City will have a large budget surplus or a modest surplus.  That’s all!  
 
Pasadena has averaged General Fund surpluses of $21.5 million per year for the past 8 years.  Pasadena has nearly two-thirds of a billion dollars in cash, investments and reserves on hand reflecting an unconscionable $11,669 per Pasadena household.
 
The City has claimed that the Utility Users Tax Reserve fund is underfunded and should be 8% instead of 7.5%  is misleading. Would you believe your household savings aren’t enough for a “rainy day” if you did not have 8% of your yearly earnings in a savings account when you had 3 years of annual income sitting in your checking account? 
 
Pasadena ’s taxpayers should question the credibility of City officials for saying there is a financial crisis if Measure D is defeated.  Even the Pasadena Star News editorial of Feb. 1 stated:

”We don't think it (City of Pasadena ) has been frank enough in recent years with citizens about its revenue levels, which a look at city budgets will show have been consistently over expectations for many years running.”
 
Police, Fire, Parks, or Library and 9-11 services or staff will not be cut if Measure D does not pass. 
 
Q. Is Measure D merely the continuation of an existing tax as the City contends?

No, Measure D is not the CONTINUATION but the EXPANSION of its Utility Users Tax to include the Internet.
 
Pasadena ’s Measure D tax is flawed because:
1.  It lasts forever and does not contain a sunset clause.
2.  It has no cap at $10 million which is what the City says it will lose in tax revenues.
3.  It has no individual cap of $5,000 per year per individual or business such as contained in other city’s ordinances.
4.  It has no rebate clause.
5.  It is the only Utility User’s Tax ordinance on phones and the Internet in the state of California which includes “digital downloads.” 
6.  It does not restrict use the tax revenues for only essential services. 
 
Measure D is like writing a blank check to the City and letting them enter the amount and the date on the check. 
 
The following refused to endorse Measure D when the City of Pasadena  appealed to them to do so:

Pasadena Star News
Pasadena Weekly
Pasadena Neighborhood Coalition
League of Women Voters.

What does that tell you?