El Monte May Update Phone Taxes

EL MONTE - Voters could decide in November if they want to reduce portions of the city's utility tax, while expanding it to include newer telecommunications technologies.

The El Monte City Council on Tuesday approved language for a proposed ballot proposition, which would reduce the telecommunications portion of the tax to 6.5 percent, from the current 7percent. The tax would remain at 7 percent for other utilities paid in the city, including electricity, gas and water.

But the measure should not reduce the estimated $3.65 million received annually from phone bills, officials said.

The new language would allow applying the tax to new technologies like Internet phone lines, which did not exist when the tax was first approved by voters in 1997, said City Attorney E. Clarke Moseley.

The tax is already applied to cell phone bills in the city, said Deputy City Attorney Richard Padilla.

The council voted against expanding the half-percent tax reduction to utilities other than telecommunications following statements from Detective Brian Glick, a representative from the El Monte Police Officers Association.

I think that reducing phone taxes would be great for the city of El Monte because everyone in the U.S. has a home phone let alone a cell phone. And it will be good for people because they already pay for two phone bills a home and a cell and it would save them quite a bit of money over time.