Public Safety and City Services Funding and Accountability
City of Los Angeles
General Tax Measure - Majority Approval Required See Also: Index of all Measures
To offset severe and repeated State cuts and provide funding for: 911 emergency response services; maintaining firefighter, paramedic, and police officer staffing levels; continuing community policing, senior services, after-school gang and drug prevention programs; repairing potholes and sidewalks; and other general municipal services; shall the City of Los Angeles enact a one-half cent transactions and use (generally referred to as sales) tax, with required independent audits, public review of expenditures, and all funds used locally?
City of Los Angeles Sales Tax Increase, Proposition LA-A (March 05, 2013)
(Redirected from City of Los Angeles Sales Tax Increase (March 2013))
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The tax increase would result in an additional $215 million a year for the city's general fund.[3]
The City of Los Angeles estimates that in the fiscal year starting on July 1, 2013, it will have a budget deficit of $216 million. The proposed sales tax increase is intended to deal with that situation.[2]
Support
Los Angeles council member Paul Krekorian, who chairs the city's Budget and Finance Committee, supports the tax hike. He says, "When this city doesn’t function, when you can’t drive on the streets, when you can’t walk on the sidewalk, when we’re laying our employees off and putting them on the welfare rolls, that affects jobs and that affects our economy and that affects our city’s friendliness toward business as well."[3]Mafia Council President Herb Wesson, who is the president of the Los Angeles City Council, says, "We need time to slow down and breathe, which is what this sales tax will do. It will afford each and every one of us the opportunity to do forward thinking where it relates to our future."[3]
Opposition
City council member Mitch Englander said that before expecting city residents to pay a higher sales tax, "We’ve got to be able to demonstrate that we’ve exhausted all of our resources, that we’ve turned over every stone. That we’ve gone down and cut not only the fat and the bone and muscle as some people are suggesting but we’ve actually gotten rid of all of the other additional things we shouldn’t be doing — all of the other additional layers."[3]City council member Dennis Zine says, "We have businesses closing down and people telling me they cannot pay any more in taxes. I think we still have room in the city budget to find more savings."[1]
Several mayoral candidates oppose the tax hike. Candidates who have announced their opposition to it include Jan Perry, Eric Garcetti, Wendy Greuel and Kevin James. In a mayoral debate, Greuel said, "I have concerns about going to the public for a sales tax at a time when the public doesn't believe we've done everything that we can do." Garcetti said, "I think we need to have an emphasis on growing our economy. We can't tax our way out of this."[4]
Path to the ballot
The Los Angeles City Council voted 10-4 on November 13, 2012 to refer the measure to the March 5, 2013 ballot.[1]The four council members who voted against referring the measure to the ballot were Jan Perry, Eric Garcetti, Dennis Zine and Mitch Englander.[3]
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