AGOURA HILLS UTILITY TAXES : CON: `NO' VOTE IS A DEMAND FOR FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY.

Byline: Barbara Murphy Special to the Daily News

Agoura Hills residents will vote June 25 on the controversial utilities taxes - electric, gas and telephone - enacted in June 1994 in violation of Proposition 62.

Only after recent Supreme Court rulings and a threatened lawsuit from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is our council finally giving taxpayers their rightful vote.

Rather than use regularly scheduled elections, our council maneuvered a costly single-issue special election, when expected low voter turnout might favor passage. They even seek retroactive approval to avoid paying refunds they may owe you. Their annual report admits: ``. . . A court may rule that the city must return the utility users' tax collected.''

Agoura Hills voters should reject these taxes for the following reasons:

The tax income can be used for any purpose. There's absolutely no guarantee or requirement the money be used for vital services like public safety, roads, etc. They can simply shift the money in an age-old fiscal shell game, using scare tactics to exploit emotions and fears about cuts in vital services to perpetuate bureaucracy, pet projects, litigation and fiscal irresponsibility.

The taxes have no scheduled end. You could pay forever.

The taxes cost average families $100 to $200 year. These confiscatory, regressive taxes hurt us all, especially lower-income families not meeting exemption criteria.

The taxes are excessive and unnecessary. Our council has made only the most meager cuts, ignoring most substantial cost-cutting recommendations made by their own Citizens Budget Advisory Committee.

The best way to judge future use is to judge past use.

Budgeted salaries and benefits skyrocketed 74 percent, while public safety spending rose only 6 percent from 1989 to 1994. High consultant fees - for example, $600,000 in legal fees some years - aren't competitively bid. More than $600,000 was wasted removing two billboards they could have moved later for free.

City officials shift blame by consistently overstating state takeaways, alleging a ``$2.2 million cumulative state takeaway since 1991'' in property and sales taxes. Yet a city report shows that from 1991 to 1995 annual property tax revenues totaled $1.388 million, $1.491 million, $1.355 million, $1.388 million and $1.355 million. Sales tax revenue totals for those years were $2.013 million, $1.891 million, $1.893 million, $1.913 million and $2.077 million. That's no $2.2 million loss.

They've also overstated utility tax revenue. Their expensive downtown attorney wrongly claimed $1.1 million a year. Only after Citizens Against New Local Taxes showed it closer to $1.4 million a year did the city revise its estimate to $1.3 million a year. That excludes other new taxes on cable and trash enacted without our vote.

Let's get to the real problem. Agoura Hills suffers from ``Leaky Barrel Syndrome.'' It has enough revenue flowing into the top of barrel. It doesn't need more revenue. The problem is the barrel has holes in it. Revenue is being wasted, spilling out all the holes. They need to plug the holes.

The HJTA has noted the rapid spread of ``Mad Assessment Disease.'' A Daily News editorial (May 24) says the L.A. City ``Council's claim that a new tax is the only way to afford the police expansion is disingenuous. . . . The council has repeatedly failed to wring every penny of wasteful spending on the budget.'' The same's true right here.

Irv Schnittman, spokesman for Outlaw Unfair Taxes, offers one amusing win-win approach. Citizens who support the levy pay the tax at a slightly higher rate; no problem for those who think it's only a very small tax. Those who oppose the tax need not pay. Those who never met a tax they didn't like and enjoy bureaucrats caring for their money win. So do those who begrudge government more of their hard-earned money. Sadly, this solution's too logical.

Agoura Hills voters must consider taxes in the larger context. Most families already pay government more than 40 percent of their income. At all levels, government fails to prioritize or live within budget. Government officials have made it evident they're unable to make good on promises to voters. Voters too often pass big bond propositions and new taxes but never get what they paid for (e.g., L.A.'s Proposition 1 in 1989 and Proposition M in 1992).

Our City Council members do not deserve a blank check. Their record of bad planning, poor management and an overall lack of accountability does not inspire trust.

Instead of raising taxes with each new need, charging taxpayers twice for the same services, our council should do what families and businesses do - prioritize spending and live within budget.

Agoura Hills voters should reject these taxes by voting no on June 25.

MEMO: Barbara Murphy is co-chair of Citizens Against New Local Taxes and was a member of Agoura Hills Citizens Budget Advisory committees in 1993 and 1994.