Valley Safer but Problems Ahead, Hahn Says

A year after defeating secession, Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn said in his annual State of the Valley speech Thursday that city efforts had contributed to a drop in crime and an increase in economic development in the San Fernando Valley, but he warned that budget problems mean tougher times ahead.

Hahn ran into skepticism from leaders of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., which was host for the speech, when he pledged to continue efforts to reform the city’s business tax system and pitched his $9-billion plan for modernization of Los Angeles International Airport.

Association leaders have complained that the city has taken too long to change its gross receipts tax on businesses.

The group also recently went on record as opposing key elements of Hahn’s airport plan, including construction of a new central passenger check-in center more than a mile from the current terminals. The group said the project would be too expensive and would make the airport less convenient for passengers.

“He didn’t convince me,” the newly elected VICA chairman, Martin Cooper, said of Hahn’s airport presentation.

Cooper was generally positive about the speech, and said he was encouraged that Hahn had held out the possibility of creating more flyaway facilities, such as one in Van Nuys, where people can park far from the airport and take a bus to LAX.

“That’s a lot more cost-effective than spending $9 billion without increasing the capacity of the airport by one passenger,” Cooper said.

The overall reception to Hahn’s speech was noticeably warmer than the reaction to last year’s, which was given just after the mayor led the campaign to defeat a Valley cityhood measure that had been endorsed by the association.

The mayor told the 400 business leaders at the Universal Hilton that the Valley is better off for having stayed part of Los Angeles.

“Working together, with a focus on achieving results, we have been able to reduce crime. We have been able to improve neighborhoods. This is despite the tough economy after Sept. 11 and the state’s severe financial problems that impacted our local budget,” Hahn said. “As a result, the state of our Valley is safer, thriving, and is getting better every day.”

The speech was given a day after Hahn slammed state leaders, and threatened to take them to court, for reducing car-tax payments to the city by $19 million per month.

Hahn’s one major departure from his prepared comments was to urge business people to lobby the governor and the Legislature to keep the city financially whole.

“Safer streets and improved neighborhoods will be difficult to achieve in these tough economic times, but it can be done and we have the will,” he said.

The concerns of the association’s leaders that fueled the secession effort have not been forgotten, Hahn said.

“Last year, I heard a loud and clear message from Valley residents and businesses -- you want a more responsive city government. And we are listening,” Hahn said.

He touted the creation of 81 neighborhood councils -- including 26 in the Valley -- which he said give residents a better voice in their government. He said City Hall had been brought closer to neighborhoods with the opening this year of the Marvin Braude Constituent Service Center in Van Nuys.

The mayor’s goals for the coming year, he told the business leaders, include moving forward with LAX modernization, which he said would improve security at the airport.

But Robert Rodine, co-chairman of VICA’s Transportation Committee, said of the LAX plan: “What we are left with is a facility that would be inconvenient at best.”

Skepticism also greeted Hahn’s comments that he looks forward to receiving a report next month on alternatives to the city’s gross receipts tax.

“If we are really serious about attracting and retaining businesses, I think we have to consider every option for making our city more attractive,” said Hahn, adding that when the report on tax reform comes out “I will review it closely at that time.”

The mayor has opposed calls from some Valley civic leaders to eliminate the business tax on gross receipts, which does not exist in Burbank and Glendale, but he has said he is open to changing the tax structure so it is simpler and less onerous.

Some who attended the meeting said that Hahn had promised business tax reform last year in his State of the Valley address.

The association director, Richard Katz, a former assemblyman who headed last year’s secession campaign, said the subject had been raised since the first term of the administration of Mayor Richard Riordan. “The city just refuses to budge,” Katz said. “The rhetoric has been good but the action has not.”