Phone tax measure moves closer to ballot

Despite concerns about the last-minute maneuver, the Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to draft emergency ballot language that would ask voters in February to endorse a 9 percent tax on telephone and cell-phone users. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

The decision is a step toward rewriting the city's telephone users' tax regulation to keep it legal and ensure that the city continues to rake in more than $200 million a year.

The revenue is being threatened because wireless companies recently won a lawsuit challenging the 10 percent tax, meaning the city could lose $162 million a year generated by cell-phone taxes. Meanwhile, another critic is challenging the tax on long-distance phone calls.