Long Beach council holds off on taking more port revenue

Long Beach council holds off on taking more port revenue    The Long Beach City Council has delayed a decision on whether to increase the percentage of profits it takes annually from the Port of Long Beach.
   The port has transferred 10 percent of its net earnings to the city into a fund that helps the city offset its costs for environmental programs and maintenance.
   However, that 10 percent is due to drop precipitously this year, given that volume through the port has fallen nearly 20 percent from 2008 levels. Long Beach city staff had proposed transferring a higher percentage of the earnings as a way to bolster the city's revenue.
   The plan was met with disdain by the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, which urged the city to target sources of financial weakness.
   'The chamber agrees with the authors of this motion that during difficult budget times, it is important to re-examine all funding sources and ensure they reflect the changing economic environment,' the chamber said in a statement. 'But re-examining all funding sources should not mean re-examining the funding sources that actually work and then pick their pockets. Instead, re-examining sources that drain funding is a more productive way to approach our fiscal problems.'
   In a letter to the City Council Tuesday, the Agriculture Transportation Coalition, which represents U.S. ag exporters, said keeping the money with the port is more important to the local economy.
   'The Port of Long Beach, as other ports, must continuously improve its infrastructure in order to increase efficiency,' the AgTC letter said. 'Failure to keep up with the efficiency enhancements at other U.S. ports will cause agriculture exporters and importers to divert to those other ports. The cost of fuel, rail freight rates and the widening of the Panama Canal are creating incentives to use ports other than those in Southern California to access major U.S. population centers.
   'Even on the West Coast, other ports, including Canadian ports, provide competitive gateways for agriculture. Even agriculture based in the Central Valley of California is finding its way to Houston for export. This demonstrates that the Port of Long Beach cannot assume that even California agriculture will transit its docks. Our preference is that the closest ports — the ports of Long Beach, L.A. and Oakland — be highly competitive. We are concerned that diversion of funds away from capital improvements and operations will undermine the port's ability to serve agriculture cargos.'
   According to a report late Tuesday night from the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the council voted to delay a meeting of the city's Charter Amendment Committee (which would decide on the transfer percentage) and instead study the legal issues of such a change.