Proposed Tax Increase On Chevron – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Ron Murray

The following letter to the editor was published in the El Segundo Herald newspaper (HeraldPublications.com) on Thursday, January 5, 2012 in the Letters section on page 3. The El Segundo Herald has a strict 250-word limit, including the title.

Proposed Tax Increase On Chevron

The proposed tax increase is flawed. The tax proposed is on land ownership, not on the business. The County taxes property— land and improvements of which El Segundo receives a “slice”. Taxes should be uniform and consistent; so the tax should be applied to all unimproved land in the city—parking lots, unimproved commercial zoned property, empty storage lots, etc., not just on Chevron.

Most business in El Segundo pay a business tax based on commercial building footage plus number of employees/contractors. This formula is good as it is tied to services provided by the city to the business. Chevron’s production facilities are not inside buildings, so an adjustment of the formula is needed for them, however, the space taken for administration, production/processing, transport and storage of its product(s) should be known and could be a substitute for the square footage part of the formula. Under no circumstances should the tax be based on land ownership, much of which is not used for production.

The Dec. 22 Herald states the Measure could add $10 million to the city. That currently is about the total business license income for the whole city—is Chevron to carry one-half or more of the business tax burden?

Ron Murray