Vini, Vidi, VICA

By Paul Hatfield

Today’s VICA Forum was held at Woodbury University.

Chris Essel and Paul Krekorian focused on business issues – no surprise considering the sponsor.

Any words contained in parentheses represent my own thoughts; they are intended for clarification or reflect my observations.

Both of them objected to the unfairness of the gross receipts tax. Paul said the current structure made it inviting for businesses to move to Glendale and Burbank where there are no such taxes. Chris said pass-through entities should be exempted (my note: taxing pass-throughs for gross receipts causes double taxation much in the same way as corporate dividends).

They emphasized their business credentials: Chris’ thirty-five years at Paramount where she ran a planning and development office, Paul’s private legal career where he served as an advocate for small businesses. Paul also mentioned the legislation he created to offer tax credits as an incentive to deter runaway production and the jobs creation tax credit for small business (note: between two continuing professional education classes and two candidate forums in the course of around a week, I have now been thoroughly indoctrinated about those two bills – the state should grant me additional credit hours).

There was a little friction between the two of them on the film production credit. Chris remarked that the bill was limited in scope; Paul claimed that filming declined during Chris’ involvement with the Film Commission.

The segment on the City’s budget was encouraging because both of them agreed on the need to seek concessions from the unions, aggressive collection of fees and fines (from scofflaws I assume), and the need to create more business activity (I would like to hear more from each of them concerning their vision for the fiscal reconstruction of the city).

A unique question was thrown their way next.

What would each tell resident and homeowner organizations that they would not share with business groups?

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