Glasper not backing down from Adelanto tax plan

For companies selling outside city, councilman pushes for alternative revenue

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Charley Glasper greets Adelanto Councilman Ed Carmargo as Glasper took his seat on the Council in December 2014. (James Quigg, Daily Press)
• By Shea Johnson
  Staff Writer

  
  Posted Jun. 1, 2015 at 12:45 PM 
  
  

  ADELANTO — The city ought to put a measure on the November ballot that would tax certain businesses 1 percent of annual gross sales, or else the city will "still be as poor as church mice," City Councilman Charley Glasper said last week.

  Glasper has emerged as the biggest proponent among Council members of a move that would alleviate revenue drop-off that occurs when the city is not collecting on point-of-sales from businesses here who sell outside Adelanto. He first addressed the issue at the Council meeting May 13.

  Mayor Pro Tem Jermaine Wright was the first, however, to introduce the idea to tax companies whose point of sales were not within the city limits 1 percent of their annual gross sales — a plan that would be rolled into the city's license fee structure.

  Glasper has targeted companies in the Adelanto Industrial Park and used the current $50 annual license fee as a point of criticism. During Wednesday's meeting, he stood firm about his belief that $50 was not enough from companies who he said make millions of dollars selling products outside the city, as he also pushed back against detractors who felt his stance was alienating job-creators.

  "We're having a hard time meeting our budget. We don't have money coming in like Victorville, Hesperia and Apple Valley," he said. "I guarantee you they wouldn't have an operation going on in their cities like this. But yet, people comment from those cities about how we are downing businesses in the city. We're not. We're trying to catch up on what we've been missing for the last 15 or 20 years."

  The impetus for his position came from a study commissioned by Diamond Bar-based HdL Companies presented May 13. The study outlined three options the city could pursue to boost business tax revenues. Finding that Adelanto's fee structure was similar to neighboring municipalities, the study also acknowledged that moving to the gross percentage sales model would enormously boost city coffers.

  A business that paid $50 to $100 under the existing ordinance could see a business tax increase of $42,000 under the gross receipts model, the study found. The city currently issues approximately 1,200 licenses annually, generating on average just $63,500 in yearly business tax revenues.

  "We've opened up Pandora's Box, and now the average citizen that lives in this city, they don't have a clue as to why we're so broke," Glasper said Wednesday. "We've got one of the biggest industrial parks up here ... and all we get is $50 a year out of this ..."

  Glasper and Wright have also been critical of industrial companies' tractor-trailers that they said reportedly tear up city roads.

  "People in New York, all over this country, (are) getting money from these businesses out here and we're not getting our share," Glasper said. "Now, it's going to take some time, it's not going to be done overnight, but we're going to have to put this thing on the November ballot ... so we can start getting our piece of the action, and until we do that we're going to still be as poor as church mice."

  Shea Johnson may be reached at 760-955-5368 or SJohnson@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DP_Shea.