HAHN CALLS FOR RAISING AUTO FEES.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer

Mayor James Hahn and a host of other elected officials called Monday on Gov. Gray Davis and state lawmakers to lessen the local impacts of the state budget crisis by increasing the vehicle license fee.

Bumping the fee back up to the level before it was cut in 1998 would raise the cost of an automobile license by roughly $13.50 for every $1,000 of the vehicle's value. The owner of a $20,000 car, for example, would be paying $270 more a year.

The increase would bring in $4 billion to the state treasury, Wesson said.

``We must find a balanced approach, where we look at cuts and we look at revenue enhancements,'' Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson said. ``And we've got to make sure that we try to keep our promise to keep these streets safe.''

Wesson, who plans to introduce legislation this week to increase the fee, said the concept behind the 1998 decrease was to lower the cost when the state enjoyed a budget surplus and raise it during hard times.

Davis has proposed cutting payments to local cities to help balance a state deficit over the next 18 months that he estimates at nearly $35 billion, although the nonpartisan state Legislative Analyst Office pegs it at $26 billion.

He does not support increasing the VLF to its earlier level, although he has proposed a series of $8 billion in tax increases from other sources.

Cities still receive the same amount of revenue as they did before the 1998 fee reduction because the state decided to make up the difference.

The governor's plan is to stop that ``backfill'' of the lost revenue to cities. Wesson's plan is to increase the fee so that the backfill can end without harming the state or the cities.

Los Angeles city officials say the VLF loss alone would cost the city about $245 million in the next 18 months, while cuts to other state programs bring the total lost to $300 million.

The city has already imposed a freeze on most hiring and equipment purchases and is preparing to cut departments' budgets by 7 percent. Losing the VLF would likely force layoffs and an extension of the hiring freeze to the previously exempt police officers, firefighters and sanitation workers.

``It's absolutely crucial to public safety in California,'' Hahn said. ``After all, it's local government who are the first responders - the firefighters, the paramedics, the police officers, who every day risk their lives to protect others' lives.''

Davis said Monday he does not support increasing the VLF.

``I don't think at this time that raising the VLF is a good idea,'' Davis told reporters prior to participating in the Martin Luther King Jr. parade in Los Angeles.

Davis didn't elaborate on his reasons, but spokeswoman Hilary McLean said later that the governor has already proposed hiking taxes on cigarettes, sales and personal income and that he is reluctant to further increase the burden on taxpayers.

The tax increases will help raise more than $8 billion for local governments, particularly counties, to pay for new health and social services that Davis is proposing to shift to the local level.

Assemblyman Keith Richman, R-Granada Hills, the assistant Republican leader, said he believes the state needs to look at trimming its spending further before looking at any tax increases.

``We need to go through the budget on a line-by-line basis, and make sure that government is running as efficiently as possible,'' Richman said. ``And we need to get rid of waste, fraud and abuse before we look at raising taxes on hard-working California families.''