‘Alimony’ Law and Secession

* Re “Alimony Law Could Handicap a Fledgling Valley City,” Jan. 10.

For years, the downtown politicians have been telling us that the San Fernando Valley receives its fair share of city services and tax revenues. Even if the downtown bureaucracy is too large, costly, inefficient and unresponsive, they say, it is equally so all across the city.

Now, in its weekly attack on Valley independence, the Los Angeles Times on Sunday writes that a new, independent Valley city “likely would be burdened for years with a massive, legally required payment to the city it left behind.” Of course, such an alimony payment will only be necessary if the Local Agency Formation Commission study on Valley independence [confirms] what many Valley voters already believe: The Valley does not receive, and never has received, its fair share of city services and tax revenues.

Is it any wonder that so many in the Valley want to create an independent Valley city, in which they will decide how and where their hard-earned tax dollars will be spent?

STEVEN G. PEARL

Executive and Legal Committees,

Valley VOTE

Encino