Hertzberg's color alert.

For L.A. mayoral candidate Robert Hertzberg, the city of Los Angeles is on code "red."

It's not a terror warning but rather Hertzberg's take on L.A.'s status as a high-cost city for businesses.

In making his case for business tax reform, he adapted the findings of the Kosmont-Rose Institute Cost of Doing Business Survey, which uses dollar signs to signify which cities have the highest taxes and fees. For each of the last 10 years, L.A. has ranked as the most expensive city, with either four or five dollar signs.

Instead of the dollar signs, the Hertzberg campaign decided to use the national "terror alert" color codes. That's how L.A. ended up with the "severe" or red rating in an e-mail blast sent out last week.

"Bob (Hertzberg) wanted to come up with something that would make a more powerful statement about the impact of the cost of doing business on jobs," campaign spokesman Matt Szabo said.

On his campaign blog, Hertzberg said L.A.'s status is reason to junk the entire gross-receipts tax system. "If we're going to bring new jobs and businesses to Los Angeles, we must end the gross receipts business tax as we know it," he said.

Staff reporter Howard Fine can be reached at [phone], ext. 227, or at [e-mail].