Los Gatos Weekly-Times

City attorney says tax break is legal

By Clarence Cromwell

A $26 tax break is on the way for Monte Sereno residents.

After assurance from the city attorney that the decision will not be permanent, the council decided by a 4-1 vote to cut the tax, with member Pamela Bancroft dissenting.

The next property assessment bill Monte Sereno landowners receive from the county will include a $95 fee for police protection, rather than the $121.50 charged each of the past eight years.

Along with the tax-cut proposal, the council on June 5 adopted the 1996-97 budget, adjusted to include the lower assessment.

The council decided at the previous meeting to delay the decisions on the assessment and the budget until the city's ability to adjust the fee yearly could be affirmed. The city attorney explained that the carefully written resolution that enacted the tax allows it to be adjusted each year.

The tax was set at $150 a year, but passage of the resolution allows the city, with a vote of the City Council, to refrain from collecting part of the tax. Although the council hasn't changed the rate of the tax in eight years, it could have raised the tax to the full amount this year by not approving a cut.

City Manager Carolyn Lehr, however, said the tax cut is appropriate because the intent of the original law was to provide money for police services only if the money is needed to balance the budget.

Lehr said savings from switching law enforcement agencies, from Santa Clara County sheriff to the Los Gatos police, made the tax cut possible. She explained that the LGPD charges about $25,000 a year less than the county did to patrol the city.

Bancroft said the money could be better used elsewhere.

"I don't think that it's prudent fiscal management," Bancroft said.

"I don't think $26 in any citizen's pocket is going to be noticed."

Bancroft suggested leaving the assessment at the full $121.50 and using excess general fund money to help residents with their trash recycling bills.

Lilian Harman, a member of Citizens FOR Monte Sereno who addressed the tax cut at the council's previous meeting, reiterated her own reasons for opposing it. The citizens' group has accused the city of building up a free-spending bureaucracy.

Harman said the town could need money later, listing a number of possible setbacks--including a lawsuit, a quake or decreases of other fees--she thinks could leave the city short of cash. At the earlier meeting, she speculated that Monte Sereno residents might be angered if the tax cut were followed by an increase the following year.

The $973,699 operating budget, adopted by a unanimous council vote, includes a $10,000 raise for the city attorney and a $75,000 allotment for the city manager's salary.

Council members emphasized that the $75,000 city manager salary is a "place-holder." They're seeking a replacement for Carolyn Lehr, who has announced her resignation and plans to move to New Jersey. They say that the new manager's salary will be based on his or her qualifications.