Organized labor has contributed more than $1 million to help Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa persuade voters to approve a Feb. 5 ballot measure that would maintain the city's telephone utility users tax.People vs. the powerful.
If voters reject the tax, the city could lose as much as $270 million a year currently generated by residential and business telephone calls. Villaraigosa has warned that if the city loses that money, services will be cut and employees could lose jobs.
Los Angeles County Federation of Labor Executive Secretary-Treasurer Maria Elena Durazo said unions are bankrolling the campaign because losing the telephone tax would hurt city services and the public employees who provide them.
"We are extremely concerned about where our communities could end up if these services are cut in a big way," Durazo said.
"It also directly impacts workers, and could cause layoffs if those services are cut. We could suffer."
So far, Villaraigosa has collected $1.6 million in cash contributions from allies including developers and business interests for the campaign to support the measure - but the bulk of the money has come from unions.
Change to Win, a national coalition of seven labor unions, has contributed $500,000 to the "Yes on Proposition S" campaign, according to financial disclosure statements filed Monday.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
L.A. Unions pump $1 million into phone-tax campaign
The L.A. Daily News reports:
