Vernon Update: Los Angeles County Moves Closer to Devouring Its Prey

We gave an update yesterday on goings-on in the tiny city of Vernon, where local businesses are fighting to prevent the city from being dissolved (and thus becoming an unincorporated part of Los Angeles County). Well, yesterday the state Legislature took a move toward giving those business owners some very bad news, as the bill to dissolve the city's government was approved by the Local Government Committee. As it stands now, AB46 could become law as early as September.

The LA Times report is here. Just so we can rest easier, we'll go through this one more time: in spite of all the rhetoric from John Perez (D-Los Angeles), the Assembly Speaker and AB46's author, dissolving Vernon has nothing to do with good government. Are there serious corruption problems within the incestuous clique that's run Vernon for generations? Of course. But that's hardly unique to Vernon, and as a representative of the city that gave us the Rampart Scandal we're guessing Perez knows that. This is about the political elite in Los Angeles attempting to seize a source of tax revenues against the wishes of a lot of hard-working, productive businesses whose only mistake, apparently, was generating too much wealth to avoid notice.