I Support the gross receipts tax decrease and the minimum wage increase but you can’t have one without the other

This levy on businesses accounts for around 10% of the city’s budget. It is a tax on your gross and not on your profit! Most pay $5.07 for every $1,000 in sales. That’s the highest rate in the region, almost 10 times the average of the other 87 cities in Los Angeles County. Eliminating this “mob like off the top tax” would spur new economic activity within city borders, chiefly from companies deciding to relocate to Los Angeles or even deciding to stay. That would translate to more revenue from other fees, such as sales tax, to offset the loss in gross receipts tax proceeds and create new and even better paying jobs. I support the raising of the minimum wage that is tied to the lowering of the gross receipts tax. We can do it. We can do it today. City Hall can raise the minimum wage if it wants to by streamlining it’s operations so that it does more with less. I have seen teachers at King Middle School increase test scores at a time when funding dropped. They did more with less. For those of us who actually care about low paid workers we lament the current debate about minimum wage as stoked by our so called leaders at city hall as a classic “wag the dog” that has pitched worker against business. Let us refocus the debate back to the root problem. The 4th floor at 201 North Spring Street! While I applaud for example in February, the city councils renewed support for sanctions against Iran and as Steve Lopez put it the jolt that that must have delivered to Tehran or the recent proclamation of Jiff the Pomeranian Day by our wise leaders, I wonder when we might focus on real issues like ease of permitting, reform of B.S.S. and D.W.P and a path to economic sustainability. Caring about workers is of no use. We need to actually do something about it. Make it easier for for people like you and me to open up a business. How about making it easier for all workers to open up their own businesses? Make it easier for their families to get a decent public education. Reward business when they expand. How about leading by example?