L.A. officials say eliminating business tax is a bad idea

You can't kill off a revenue source without either cutting more services or coming up with another revenue source to make up the difference - and there is no revenue source to make up the difference. That's the basic warning being issued by City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana and Chief Legislative Analyst Gerry Miller in response to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's proposal to eliminate the gross receipts tax. The tax in its current form is a joke, to be sure, but getting rid of it would make things worse - what Santana and Miller aptly call "faith-based budgeting" (there's a lot of that going around City Hall) From the LAT:

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and some council members, including President Eric Garcetti, have called for the tax to be eliminated, saying that it has contributed to the city's reputation as a tough place to do business. The mayor was not dissuaded by the report, although he agreed that any loss in business tax revenue would have to be offset. "We will work with the CAO and council as we put together our budget to develop a fiscally responsible, long-term approach to business tax reform," he said in a statement.

Translation: I really don't have a clue on how to offset those revenue losses, but the chamber of commerce is pushing this business tax thing, the unions seem to be okay with it, and hell, by the time anybody notices that the money is drying up I'll be long gone from Dodge.