L.A. councilman says business tax report had editorial spin

The drive to dismantle -– and possibly scrap –- the business tax in Los Angeles moved forward Wednesday as a City Council committee called for an independent economic analysis of several proposals to cut it, including one that would phase it out over four years.

Council President Eric Garcetti, who has been pressing to find a way eliminate the tax to attract more businesses to L.A., also criticized the “tone” of the report released Tuesday by two top City Hall officials. It concluded that eliminating the tax would be “poor public policy.”

“It felt quite editorializing, not helpful to a policymaker on how we get someplace, but more like 'please don’t make us do this, this is terrible, it can never be done, we know better,' ” he said. “I know it’s scary. I think part of this was kind of like: Just don’t do it. It’s poor public policy.”

Miguel Santana, the city administrative officer, defended the report, saying it was analyzing a proposal that called for an end to the tax without accounting for the lost revenue.