Opinion: Phone tax updated in three more cities

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Voters in Culver City, Malibu and Sierra Madre decided (by fairly wide margins) to ratify their utility user taxes and extend them to ‘new’ technologies, like cell phones. Malibu did it the L.A. way: lower the tax from 5% to 4.5% while broadening it, to call it a tax reduction. Culver City followed the more straightforward Pasadena model: just keep the tax at the same 11% rate while making clear it applies to more than just land lines. Sierra Madre went further, permitting the tax to be doubled to up to 12%.

For all the gory details on phone taxes, including why all of a sudden so many cities are putting them on their ballots now, check out our exhaustive (and exhausting?) previous discussions. Bottom line: cities have gotten used to the revenue, lawsuits threaten to take it away.

For more on ballot measures and the place of initiatives in American Democracy, check out Joe Mathews’ Blockbuster Democracy blog. Good stuff. If you want to zero in on yesterday’s election in Sierra Madre -- and Arcadia -- take a look at the Foothill Cities Blog. More good stuff.

So you want to know more about yesterday’s in-between election in 14 L.A. County cities? We’ve got it right here. Know that Antelope Valley attorney and powerbroker R. Rex Parris ran out of people to back for mayor of Lancaster and this time got himself elected. Check out the details in the Antelope Valley Press, and don’t miss the nasty words about neighboring Palmdale. Sounds like there’s a border skirmish brewing.

The biggest election yesterday was in Long Beach. The Press-Telegram has the details.

In Avalon, they rejected a measure to increase the tax on attractions. For the results you must take the curious step of bypassing Avalon’s official web site and instead going to the Catalina Chamber of Commerce. Hmmm....

Here are your results for Arcadia, El Segundo, Santa Clarita, Walnut and Whittier. Bradbury, where it is said that the horses outnumber the people, didn’t have its results online so I did the work for you: D. Montgomery Lewis was elected to the City Council with 40 votes out of 71 cast. By the way, bears may outnumber people in Bradbury too. Helpful hints for residents include: Freeze meat bones or other smelly items until pick-up day; Be sure to keep barbecue grills clean; Pick up fallen tree fruit, and put away pet food and bird feeders at night; Close windows at night on accessible ground floors and decks; Don’t leave food in or near a windowsill or on a counter near an open window; Securely block access to potential hibernation sites, such as crawl spaces under decks or buildings.

In Vernon, the city motto is: ‘Exclusively industrial since 1905.’ Which is another way of saying they don’t bother with that voting nonsense. They were supposed to vote yesterday, but the government canceled the election since no one filed to challenge the incumbents.

For Lawndale, live coverage was available on local channel 22, but I missed it and am inconsolable. You’re on your own.