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(a) There is hereby imposed a special tax on each parcel, improvement to property, and the use of property within the City of Los Angeles for purposes set forth in this article. The special tax shall be for 10 fiscal years, commencing with the fiscal year 1989-90 and ending with the fiscal year 1998-99.
(b) This tax is enacted under the authority of Section 101 of the Los Angeles City Charter, other authority held as a charter city, and, independently thereof, under the authority of California Government Code Sections 50075 - 50077.5. (Amended by Ord. No. 173,304, Eff. 6/30/00, Oper. 7/1/00.)
(a) The purpose of this special tax is to provide funds to the City to pay:
1. lease payments to be made by the City pursuant to any lease of fire safety and paramedic communications and dispatch equipment and systems to be utilized by the Fire Department;
2. expenses incurred incident to the authorization, issuance or sale of the bonds referred to below;
3. costs or expenses incurred by any lessor of any such communications and dispatch equipment or systems in connection with the execution, performance or enforcement of any such lease or any assignment thereof, the ownership of any such communication and dispatch equipment or systems or the lease thereof to the City, including but not limited to fees, costs, expenses or administrative costs of any such lessor in connection with any such communications equipment or systems;
4. costs or expenses (including attorneys’ fees and disbursements) of any trustee under any trust agreement or indenture under which any of such bonds are issued, including but not limited to compensation and indemnification of any such trustee;
5. any insurance premiums payable on account of any such equipment or systems (including amounts payable to any self–insurance fund) or its use or operation;
6. any amounts payable incident to obtaining or maintaining, or otherwise pursuant to, any credit enhancement or liquidity agreements or arrangements with respect to any of such bonds or lease;
7. any amounts required to be paid to the United States of America as a rebate in order for interest payments on any of such bonds to be exempt from federal income taxes;
8. any amount required to be paid into any reserve fund created under any such trust agreement or indenture; and
9. the costs of collecting and administering the tax.
The lease payments will serve as collateral for and the source of repayment of not to exceed $67,000,000 in lease revenue bonds (including refunding bonds) to be issued as a single issue, or in two or more issues or series of an issue, by a nonprofit corporation, joint powers authority or other financing medium.
The net proceeds of the lease revenue bonds are to be used to acquire such communications and dispatch equipment and systems. The equipment and systems are required by the Fire Department to provide more rapid, efficient delivery of fire safety and paramedic services in the City of Los Angeles. In the event the City shall lease any of such communications and dispatch equipment or systems under a lease that is payable from the General Fund as well as from the special tax, and such lease provides for abatement of rent or other payments either in whole or in part in the event of damage to or destruction of any such equipment or systems, then, in the event there is any such abatement, payments from the special tax permitted by this Section 21.14.4 shall be allocated first to, or in respect of, any component of the equipment or systems for which payment from the General Fund has abated due to such damage or destruction, and thereafter to the balance of the equipment and systems. In the event the City Council does not authorize the leasing of such equipment and systems, the tax shall not take effect.
(b) The taxes collected pursuant to this article shall not be used to replace City General Fund money that would normally be appropriated to finance fire safety or paramedic service.
(c) The Los Angeles City Council may provide for the collection of the special tax in the same manner and subject to the same penalties as, or with, other charges and taxes fixed and collected by the City, or by the County of Los Angeles on behalf of the City of Los Angeles. If the special tax is collected by the County on behalf of the City, the County may deduct its reasonable costs incurred for such service.
(d) Director of Finance costs of enforcement and administration of the tax, including refunds, shall be paid from the special tax revenues.
(a) There is hereby established a special fund in the City Treasury entitled Special Fire Safety and Paramedic Communications Equipment Tax Fund. Money collected pursuant to this article shall be deposited into said special fund and shall be used exclusively as provided in this article, for the purpose for which the tax is imposed, and for no other purpose. Money deposited into this special fund shall not be subject to reversion to the Reserve Fund of the City of Los Angeles, established under Charter Section 302. Nothing in this section shall prevent disbursements from this special fund to reimburse the General Fund when money has been advanced from the General Fund to pay for the uses provided for in this article. (Amended by Ord. No. 173,304, Eff. 6/30/00, Oper. 7/1/00.)
(b) Except as hereinafter provided in Subsection (c) of this section, any money raised by the special tax that remains unencumbered at the end of any fiscal year may only be used in a succeeding fiscal year for the purposes stated in this article. The availability of a surplus for any succeeding year shall be considered by the City Council when fixing the rates of tax for that year.
(c) Any amount remaining in the Special Fire Safety and Paramedic Communications Equipment Tax Fund after all lease revenue bonds issued to finance the acquisition of fire safety and paramedic communications and dispatch equipment and systems have been repaid in full, may be used solely and exclusively for maintaining, replacing or improving such equipment and systems.
(a) The tax imposed on each parcel, improvement to property, and use of property shall be computed for each parcel by applying a rate to the gross square footage area of any improvements on the parcel. If there are no improvements on a parcel, the tax shall be computed by applying the rate established for improvements to 500 square feet regardless of the size of the parcel. For 10 fiscal years, commencing with fiscal year 1989-90 and continuing through fiscal year 1998-99, the City Council, by ordinance, shall impose a rate applicable to unimproved parcels and, for each parcel upon which there is an improvement to property, shall impose a rate applicable to the gross square footage area of such improvements, regardless of the use of the parcel or improvements. The rate shall be established to provide revenue for each fiscal year sufficient to make the payments estimated to be required during that fiscal year for the purposes enumerated in Section 21.14.4(a), and in setting the rate, the City Council shall take into account possible delinquencies in payments, so that the amount expected to be collected net of delinquencies will be sufficient to make the estimated required payments.
(b) Commencing with the 1989-90 fiscal year, and for each of the nine succeeding fiscal years, the maximum tax rate for the area of improvements on a parcel shall be $1.00 per one hundred square feet of improvement area or fraction thereof.
(c) The maximum tax rate established in Subsection (b) of this section shall be adjusted annually, commencing with the 1989-90 fiscal year, to provide for changes in the cost of living and in population, as those terms are defined in Article XIII B of the California Constitution, calculated under State Department of Finance procedures applicable to government spending limitations.
(d) For any fiscal year the City may, by ordinance, adjust the tax rate below the maximum amount. Such a reduction shall not prevent a subsequent levy of taxes for any succeeding fiscal year up to the limits set forth in this section; however, except as provided in Subsection (c) of this section, in no case shall the amount of the tax rate to be levied exceed the maximum amount established by this article without the approval of the voters by two-thirds of the votes cast by voters voting upon such change in the tax rate maximum.
(a) Requests for adjustments involving imposition of this tax may be filed with the Director of Finance. Upon sufficient evidence of error in the computation of the tax the Director of Finance or a designee of the Director of Finance shall cause the tax to be recalculated, and shall so advise the Los Angeles County Tax Collector or other appropriate official.
(b) Whenever it is alleged that the amount of any tax has been overpaid or paid more than once or has been erroneously or illegally collected or received by the City under this article, the refund procedure shall be as follows:
1. No claim for refund of tax payment shall be allowed in whole or in part unless filed with the Director of Finance within a period of three years from the date of the claimed overpayment. All such claims for refund of the amount of the overpayment must be filed on forms furnished, and in the manner prescribed, by the Director of Finance. Refunds may be made from the Special Fire Safety and Paramedic Communications Equipment Tax Fund.
2. In the event the Director of Finance or the City Council denies the claim, the Director of Finance shall notify the claimant pursuant to California Government Code Section 913.
(c) The Director of Finance shall have the same power to compromise claims involving the special tax, and the same power to accept and record underpayments or overpayments of such tax, as granted to the Director of Finance under Subsections (f) and (g) of Section 21.15 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code with respect to Business Taxes. The Director of Finance shall have the same authority to make refunds of this tax as is provided in Sections 22.12 and 22.13 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code.
(d) If the County of Los Angeles does not collect any tax due under this article, then the Director of Finance shall have the power and duty to enforce all of the provisions of this article. In such cases the Director of Finance, for taxes not paid, may make an assessment against the owner of a parcel and improvements, or against the owner of improvements on another’s land, in the manner provided in Section 21.16 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code. Any unpaid tax due under this article shall be subject to Sections 21.19, 21.20, and 21.21 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code.
(e) The special tax shall be due in two equal installments in accordance with the collection procedures of the Los Angeles County Tax Collector with the first installment due November 1, and the second installment due the next succeeding February 1, in each fiscal year. The owner of the land, land and improvements, or improvements, at the time set forth in California Revenue and Taxation Code Sections 405 and 2192 for each fiscal year, shall have a personal obligation to the City of Los Angeles until the tax is paid for each fiscal year.
(f) The Director of Finance may prepare a questionnaire to be served on the owner of a parcel or improvements subject to the tax imposed by this article. The questionnaire may request information which would be useful to the Director of Finance in the enforcement or administration of this article. The failure by an owner to provide the information requested within 30 days of receipt of the request, or the act of an owner in knowingly providing false information, shall be a misdemeanor.
(g) In determining the gross square footage area of improvements the Director of Finance may use County Assessor’s records, City records, questionnaires and any other records the Director of Finance deems reliable.
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