'Baby steps' in eliminating tax

For years, Los Angeles officials and the business community have held the common desire to eliminate the city's gross-receipts tax, long seen as the iconic symbol of L.A.'s anti-business attitude. Daily News

The tax, executives argue, is driving businesses into nearby communities that had no tax. City officials agree in theory, but could not figure how to plug the $425 million hole in the city budget that scrapping the tax would create.

But now, even without having worked out the entire plan, city officials have been pushing a series of small steps to chip away at the tax, little-by-little.