EDITORIAL BAD ATTITUDE CITY HALL'S SELFISH APPROACH DOOMS PROSPECTS FOR REAL BUSINESS-TAX REFORM.

IF there's one reason why business-tax reform in Los Angeles seems doomed, it's city leaders' attitude.

For the politicians, tax reform isn't about making L.A. more business- friendly, it's about making sure the city's exorbitant business taxes bring in as much money as ever.

With an attitude like that, L.A. will never become the sort of place where businesses flock for opportunity, rather than flee from over-taxation.

That attitude has been on display from the very beginning, more than a decade ago, when then-Mayor Richard Riordan proposed overhauling L.A.'s unwieldy business-tax structure. City leaders have dragged their feet ever since for fear of losing revenues, even during the dot-com boom of the 1990s.

The attitude was in full force late last year, when city bureaucrats sent threatening letters to 151,000 L.A. businesses ordering them to comply with the old, Byzantine tax code, rather than winning them over with a simpler replacement.

And that attitude was unmistakable at last week's confab of city consultants considering tax-code changes.

The hired guns told San Fernando Valley business leaders that they intend to simplify the tax structure, but not actually reduce taxes.

In other words, business people can expect to continue paying exorbitant taxes to do business in L.A., or move to nearby suburbs and put the savings into lower prices, better wages and investment for the future.

City leaders might just as well give employers a map to Burbank, and tell them to take all their high-paying jobs with them.

Their me-first approach to business-tax reform is as shortsighted as it is selfish. Driving companies out of Los Angeles doesn't just deprive average residents of economic opportunity; in the long run, it also deprives the city treasury of the greater tax revenues that would flow from a more vibrant economy.

Sometimes, a short-term sacrifice - say, lower tax rates now - can beget a long-term gain, as in greater overall revenues later. It's called investment, and neither corporations, economies nor governments can sustain themselves long without it.

But investment doesn't much concern city leaders; paying off special interests does. The only kind of business-tax reform they like is the kind that fattens their pockets, and the sooner the better.

City Hall needs more than just a change in tax policy. It needs a change in attitude.