Sky High Taxes.

• Author: Taylor, Jeff A.
• Position: Los Angeles attempts to tax satellites - Brief Article

Good tax collectors find new things to tax. Los Angeles County Assessor Rick Auerbach may turn out to be taxman of the century if he succeeds in slapping property taxes on several satellites.

The eight birds orbiting the equator are worth $100 million each to Hughes Electronics, which happens to have offices in L.A. county. That's enough to make Hughes owe the jurisdiction a multi-million-dollar tax bill, Auerbach claims.

Auerbach counts satellites as taxable movable personal property--like boats, construction equipment, and ice-skating costumes. For its part, Hughes...