NEWS
By Zanku Armenian | March 10, 2012
We all feel it when gas prices spike. It's a pattern every four years that coincides with elections. Israel threatens to strike Iran, Iran threatens to block oil shipments and presidential candidates spew inflammatory rhetoric. Suddenly, oil companies see a windfall opportunity with prices spiking - a dollar per-gallon in the last month alone. What is different this time is that as a result of our economy, a lot of people have lost their jobs, and those who still have a job haven't seen a raise in years.
NEWS
By Brittany Levine, brittany.levine@latimes.com | September 28, 2011
The Americana at Brand generated about $1.16 million in sales tax revenue in 2010, 19% below expectations, but the mega-retail development has far exceeded property value projections, city officials reported Tuesday. The Americana's assessed value in fiscal year 2011-12 was $479.9 million, more than double what had been projected, according to staff report presented to the Redevelopment Agency. The higher-than-expected valuation generated about $3.67 million in tax revenue for the agency.
NEWS
By Ron Kaye | June 24, 2011
Drive down any main street and it is hard not to notice all the empty shops, the “Going Out Of Business” and “For Lease” signs, the proliferation of 99-cent and dollar stores. Book stores and record shops have largely disappeared. Major electronics retailers like Circuit City are long-gone, Fry’s greets customers with leaflets declaring they’ll match any Internet price and now Best Buy plans to wall off a quarter of its giant stores and rent the rest of the space to grocers, beauty suppliers — anybody with a buck.
NEWS
By Melanie Hicken, melanie.hicken@latimes.com | June 7, 2011
CITY HALL — City officials again are recommending that the City Council forgo setting aside sales tax revenue for public infrastructure improvements. Instead, they want that money used to help plug a projected $18-million budget deficit. Much of the sales tax revenue that was used for capital improvements — everything from street maintenance to new park facilities — already has been diverted in recent years to the General Fund, which supports basic public services. Last year, the City Council voted to divert 100% of city sales tax revenue to support General Fund operations amid continued budget deficits.
NEWS
By Ron Kaye | April 21, 2011
Surprise, surprise! The budget holes facing Burbank, Glendale and just about every other city just keep getting deeper. It’s a sure thing that next year’s deficits will be even worse, even in reasonably well-run cities. America is undergoing a dramatic economic change. We no longer manufacture enough to produce high-paying jobs with good benefits that have fueled our consumer-driven economy since World War II. Most economists, and city officials for that matter, know our economic troubles today are not cyclical phenomena with recovery just around the corner.
NEWS
By Bill Kisliuk, bill.kisliuk@latimes.com | February 11, 2011
Just days before a clash between private-property rights and Glendale’s redevelopment power is expected to come to a head over whether to back plans to shutter the Golden Key Hotel on Colorado Street and make it part of the Americana at Brand shopping center, experts say there may not be much of a fight. Golden Key owner Ray Patel has battled the plan at every step, rejecting Americana at Brand developer Rick Caruso’s $6-million buyout offer and unveiling his own plan to revamp his hotel.
NEWS
By Bill Kisliuk | September 8, 2010
Two years after changing the face of Brand Boulevard, the Americana at Brand has not paid off in sales tax revenue the way city officials hoped, but has boosted Glendale’s fortunes in other ways. At $1.16 million, sales tax revenue from the mixed-use shopping center was 15% less than expected in 2009, according to a Glendale Redevelopment Agency report. But the property tax assessment for the center — which includes 75 shops, a multiplex theater, apartments and condominiums — should reach $3.64 million for the current fiscal year, according to the report, or more than double the $1.44 million take estimated in 2003.
NEWS
By Melanie Hicken | February 17, 2010
CITY HALL — City officials this week projected a $10-million shortfall for next year, even as they look to absorb a current $3.7-million deficit with an ongoing hiring freeze. Finance Director Bob Elliot attributed the projected deficit in the $164.8-million general fund to less-than-expected revenue from sales tax receipts, construction fees and interest on city investments. “As everyone knows, the development has dwindled quite a bit, resulting in a lot fewer fees and projects going forward,” Elliot told the City Council Tuesday during a mid-year budget update.
NEWS
By Zain Shauk | January 18, 2010
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to eliminate the state’s sales tax on gasoline and replace it with a fixed excise tax will not affect funds for local road maintenance as city officials had initially feared, the state legislative analyst’s office said Wednesday. The governor’s plan would replace the sales tax on gas, taken as a percentage of a total purchase, and replace it with an increase in the state’s per-gallon gas excise tax, from 18 cents to 28.8 cents.
NEWS
By Melanie Hicken | January 13, 2010
CITY HALL — City officials Tuesday celebrated the receipt of nearly $500,000 in Los Angeles County sales tax revenue to fund what they said were much-needed street and transportation improvements. The funds were the first installment of money generated by Measure R — a voter-approved sales tax hike pushed for by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 2008 to fund transit improvements. The half-cent sales tax, which went into effect July 1, is expected to generate about $40 billion during the next 30 years — 15% of which will go directly to the county’s 88 cities.