Special Event Announcement

The Tax Limitation Committee will be having a special gathering regarding the Repeal of the Utility Users Tax (UUT) petition that will reduce residents and businesses Utility usage bills by 6.5% to 7%, on Saturday morning February 15, 2014, at 9 a.m.

It will be held at Bill Taliaffero’s residence, 1457 Beaudry Blvd., Glendale Ca 91208.   The location is off of Canada at Country Club Drive.  Beaudry Blvd. intersects with the Oakmont Country Club.  For further information, please call 818-395-9414 or email Bill at  btaliaferro7@gmail.com.    

The collecting of signatures for the petition to repeal the UUT, neither supports nor opposes the initiative.  The petition itself only gets the initiative placed on the ballot, so that voters can evaluate the arguments for and the argument against, and then decide based on the merits.

The UUT is a tax on your utility usage, 7% on water, electric, natural gas, and 6.5% on cable, and telecommunications, both land line and cell phone.  The City has collected over $300 million in UUT since FY 2001/2002.  It’s important to note, that although this is a UUT, none of the monies has gone back to the utilities, that could have substantially reduced or eliminated the 2012 water rate increase and the 2013 electric rate increase of 29.1 % over five years.  Rather, it is a hidden tax that goes to other non utility departments, from a non discretionary general appropriations fund.

If the petition to repeal the Utility Users Tax makes it onto the ballot and passes by a majority of the votes, residents and businesses will immediately see all their utility and natural gas bill reduced by 7% and their cable and telecommunications bill reduced by 6.5% upon passage.

This is not only an important vote to reduce our UUT but also to send a message to the City Council, that the people demand fiscal integrity to manage and implement fiscal control over the city’s expenditures, so that the City stops spending more that than it takes in.  Glendale’s unfunded debt liability — the difference between the assets it has on hand and the cost of the promised debt it owes — increased from $191 million in 2011, to  $227 million in 2012, to 239 million in 2013, per the City’s CAFR’s – Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. 

The petition cannot make it on the ballot without your help.  Is it worth your time to circulate a few petitions to gather 8 to 10 signatures of your neighbors and friends in your area, in order to permanently reduce your utility usage bill?  You make the choice.  I hope you can make it on Saturday morning February 15, 2014, at 9 a.m.