EDITORIAL LAME EXPECTATIONS CITY LEADERS AIM LOW ON BUSINESS TAX - AND DELIVER LITTLE.LOS Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. city leaders have learned well one of the great tricks of political showmanship: If you keep expectations low enough, it's always easy to exceed them. Case in point: City Hall's whooping whoop n. 1. a. A loud cry of exultation or excitement. b. A shout uttered by a hunter or warrior. 2. A hooting cry, as of a bird. 3. The paroxysmal gasp characteristic of whooping cough. and hollering over the piddly $5 million in overdue OVERDUE. A bill, note, bond or other contract, for the payment of money at a particular day, when not paid upon the day, is overdue. 2. The indorsement of a note or bill overdue, is equivalent to drawing a new bill payable at sight. 2 Conn. 419; 18 Pick. business-tax revenues it's been able to recover this year of the $60 million it estimated that tax scofflaws are cheating the city out of every year. ``This worked better than we expected,'' Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook gushed. Which is true. City Hall only hoped to net $3 million in the six-month tax amnesty Tax amnesty is a limited-time opportunity for a specified group of taxpayers to pay a defined amount, in exchange for forgiveness of a tax liability (including interest and penalties) relating to a previous tax period or periods and without fear of criminal prosecution. , so by that standard, $5 million is nothing short of a spectacular windfall windfall An unexpected profit or gain. An investor holding a stock that increases greatly in price because of an unexpected takeover offer receives a windfall. . But in this case, the phrase ``better than expected'' says far less about the results than the pathetically pa·thet·ic also pa·thet·i·cal adj. 1. Arousing or capable of arousing sympathetic sadness and compassion: "The old, rather shabby room struck her as extraordinarily pathetic" low expectations that preceded them. For years, Los Angeles officials have groused about rampant violations of the city's impossibly complex tax code. If only Sacramento would give them access to state tax records, they said, they could hunt down scofflaws and L.A. could recover the funds it's rightly owed. They got their wish last year, when the state opened up its records, allowing Los Angeles to locate businesses that were paying taxes to Sacramento but not to City Hall. The result? Some 151,000 letters, thoughtlessly sent out to pretty much anyone who's ever so much as sold a hot dog in the city of Los Angeles
City leaders also instituted the tax amnesty program, whereby scofflaws could make right with the law and pay back taxes - free from interest and penalties - so long as they complied by June 30. In total, the letter, the amnesty amnesty (ăm`nəstē), in law, exemption from prosecution for criminal action. It signifies forgiveness and the forgetting of past actions. , the city's total effort netted $5 million. If that's better than city officials were hoping for, then they were hoping for very little. Indeed, they only wanted 5 percent compliance by tax cheats and they got 8 percent. No matter how low you set your expectations, 8 percent is, by any measure, a failure. And what becomes of the remaining 92 percent, that $55 million in unpaid back taxes? If the way the city enforces its other regulations - like housing laws - is any indication, not much. Of course, the best way to improve city business-tax compliance would be to simplify and lower city business taxes. Many Los Angeles companies, especially the smaller ones, simply lack the resources to keep up with the intricacies and steep costs of the current system. But city leaders have dawdled on business-tax reform for more than a decade. Most recently, officials warned that if and when reform ever arrives, taxes won't actually go down for anyone. Talk about setting low expectations. |
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