City May Offer Refund of Utility Users Tax

The Agoura Hills City Council will hear a staff proposal tonight on a plan to implement a refund of the Utility Users Tax. The proposal is expected to be approved, but some activists say it does not go far enough.

The proposal would refund the money residents paid in taxes on their gas, water and phone bills between August 1995 and July 1996--from the time the state Supreme Court ruled that cities cannot impose taxes without a general vote to the month after Agoura Hills voters overturned the utility tax.

“There is no legal requirement, no precedent for the city to do this,” said City Manager Dave Adams of a possible refund. “You would think by all the clamor around town that everyone but us has done this, and that’s just not true.”

It has yet to be decided whether the Supreme Court decision will be retroactive to include previously enacted taxes such as the Utility Users Tax.

Activist Barbara Murphy, a member of Citizens Against New Local Taxes, said that the group is pleased the city might start the refund process, but that the city should be required to pay back the exact, entire amount collected from all residents, going back to 1994, when the tax was first instituted.

To obtain a refund, residents would be asked to submit their utility bills from the 10-month period or, if those are unavailable, any two consecutive bills from that period and the city would average the amount of refund. A check for the total amount, plus 6% interest, would be sent out within 30 days.

“We’re trying to make the refund process as easy as we can and get this going,” Adams said.

He added that many residents have said they do not want a refund, so to save time and money only those who ask will receive refunds. If the council approves the plan, residents would be notified in a city newsletter of the process and where they may call, write or pick up a refund application.

But Murphy said the refund should be automatic. If people want to donate their refunds back to the city, she said, it would be their choice. A fair and complete refund would be worth the administrative time and money spent on processing every account, she said.