Re “A Modest but Welcome Legal Victory for City Hall”
(See pdf below)
The trouble with state Supreme Court rulings, a City Hall executive was saying this afternoon, is that you can grow old and paunchy waiting for them to be paid off or implemented.
For example, the broad 7 to 0 Supreme Court verdict handed down two days ago – that eventually will deliver $250,000 to City Hall – held that Los Angeles, among other counties, improperly collected excessive property tax administrative fees.
While 47 County cities brought suit four years ago, all 88 municipalities will share in the refunds that total about $10 million.
All numbers, including City Hall’s, are estimates. Lawyers won’t work out the official payoffs until sometime next year, sources said.
The payoff to Culver City is about mid-size. Long Beach will benefit the most, receiving about $645,000.
As your mother and your banker always have advised you, don’t spend it before it reaches your hands.
That will be a long time because clouds are hovering around the ruling.
At an undetermined date, the County and the petitioners will return to court to argue whether the County’s debt covers merely one year or a half-dozen, as the litigants contend.
A verdict on that aspect is not expected until spring – or later.
“This is an excellent result for Culver City,” Mayor Andy Weissman said, but perspective is crucial. “In terms of its impact, in an $80 million-plus budget, $250,000 is significant but not a game-changer.”
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