San Marino : 5% Utilities Tax Approved

At a special session Monday, the City Council unanimously approved a 5% utility user’s tax to clear up the city’s $800,000 budget deficit by July, 1994.

Under the new ordinance, which takes effect Jan. 1, residents and businesses will be taxed on electricity, natural gas, water, telephone and cable TV bills.

Several residents, among them former Vice Mayor Howard Privett, an attorney for the Huntington Library, protested the $8,000 that institution will have to pay on its $600,000 annual utility bills. They succeeded in persuading the city to cap the tax at $4,000 per year.

Although amounts will vary, the tax will be about $14.50 per month for a homeowner paying $290 for utilities and $34.25 for a company paying $685 monthly. Tax on telephone bills will not exceed $350 per month.

The city will rebate $50 or 50% of the monthly utility tax, whichever is greater, paid by fixed-income residents 62 or older and earning less that $30,000 annually, City Manager Keith Till said.