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by Dan Bialek
The city of Manhattan Beach will receive about $100,000 as its share of a larger sum that local governments have been pried from the coffers of Sacramento in an ongoing battle over property taxes.
Gov. Gray Davis has signed a bill that distributes a total of $212 million to local governments across the state, returning a portion of the local property taxes that the state has been culling from the local governments since 1992.
The revenue shift in favor of the state was instituted to help offset the budget deficits of the past decade. With those deficits erased, the League of California Cities has lobbied hard for a shift of property tax revenues back to the local governments.
The bill signed by Davis will divide $100 million between cities and special districts, and another $110 million to cities and counties. Another $2 million will be dispersed to independent recreation, park and library districts.
Manhattan Beach sends about 12 percent of its property taxes to the state, said city Finance Director Bruce Moe. This adds up to a revenue loss for the city of over $1 million per year.
Moe pointed out that the property tax shift was originally presented as a temporary measure, to be phased out once the state economy began prospering again.
David Jones, legislation representative for the League of California Cities, said that it costs cities more than $4.2 billion a year to keep sending their share of the tax money to Sacramento.
"The property tax shift has cost local governments almost $30 billion since it was implemented," he said. "Local governments have been forced to cut services to accommodate for this lost revenue. Meanwhile, state spending has been growing."
Legislation to cap the amount that the state is allowed to take from local property taxes was vetoed by Davis earlier this year.
A press release from Davis' office has pointed out that his administration has provided over $1.5 billion in financial assistance for local governments through the Budget Act of 2000-2001. ER