I read with interest Jim Danziger’s opinion regarding an increase in revenue for Laguna Beach. His suggestion that we tax everyone is hardly novel, but the innovation of grossly increasing our restaurateurs’ licensing fee to get the revenue and hoping they can charge enough to us so that they are reimbursed is innovative. Of course, he references the best data he could find, which in Trumpian fashion is obscure, but from this speculation comes the pronouncement that restaurateurs would suffer minimally. He does acknowledge that residents would pay and that someday trippers would pay nothing. I suggest that day trippers would pay minimally beyond the summer months, and we would pay more all the time.
This begs several questions. Given the increased costs to restaurants in employment and supplies, is it proper to raise their costs even more? How much more are the residents willing to pay to eat out? And how about this: the Laguna Beach City Budget in 2004 was $49 million; this year, it is $147 million. Does anyone have suggestions?
David S. Watkins, Laguna Beach
