Car
tax likely to be revoked
SACRAMENTO
(AP) -- The state's top lawyer gave Gov.-elect
Arnold Schwarzenegger the green light Wednesday
to roll back car taxes, but warned the new
administration better have plans to replace
the lost revenue or face significant legal
troubles.
Attorney
General Bill Lockyer said he believes the
governor does have the legal authority to
eliminate the tripling of the vehicle license
fees -- a hike triggered last summer by
Gov. Gray Davis to help solve California's
$38.2 billion budget deficit.
But
Lockyer also said that local government
is likely to make a strong case in court
that they are guaranteed that money under
provisions of the California Constitution.
''I
think he has authority, but it's very complicated,''
Lockyer said responding to a reporter's
question during a press conference in the
Capitol. ''What you have here is the law
is so murky that four lawyers may have seven
opinions about what's possible. That's when
you wind up in court.''
Rolling
back the car tax was one of the key campaign
promises by Schwarzenegger, who said he
would eliminate the higher taxes on his
first day in office.
How
he might replace the lost funds, however,
is less clear.
Schwarzenegger
spokesman H.D. Palmer said Wednesday the
new governor has appointed an outside auditor
to analyze state spending in hopes of finding
wasted money that could be used to reimburse
counties for the lost car tax money.
Local
officials, however, are growing uneasy about
the new governor's plans.
''I'm
a big supporter of Arnold's and I think
he's got a lot of good ideas but I also
have to come to work here and figure out
how we are going to make things work,''
said Howard Moody, Siskiyou County administrator.
Moody
said his county -- like most others in the
state -- relies on the vehicle license fees
as a major source of general use money that
typically pays a big part of his county's
law enforcement costs.
David
Janssen, chief administrative officer for
Los Angeles County, warned that his county
has about $700 million at risk if a replacement
for the car tax money is not found.
''If
we lose that money it will be devastating,''
he said, and have ''severe consequences
for public safety, parks, libraries.''
During
better economic times, then-Gov. Pete Wilson
struck a deal with the Legislature and cut
the fee under an agreement with local government
that the state would pick up the difference.
But
the 1998 legislation also said the fees
would go back up if the state was no longer
able to provide the ''backfill'' to local
government.
After
an evaluating California's economic condition,
the state's cash balances and likely income
over the next year -- the governor's director
of finance, Steve Peace, determined in June
that the state could not longer keep up
the payments to the cities and counties
and ordered the higher taxes restored.
State
Controller Steve Westly said also Wednesday
that he believes the governor has the power
to reduce the tax on his own, adding that
he believes the state's financial condition
has improved in recent months.
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