A divided Los Angeles City Council will grapple this week with the question of whether voters should be allowed to decide on a half-penny sales tax hike to pay for more police officers.
Everyone on the council agrees that more cops are desperately needed. What they don't agree on is whether a higher tax would drive business from the city -- or whether it would actually lead to a safer, better-policed city and attract more businesses.
If it were to pass, the increase would add about two cents to a double-double combo at In-N-Out, $2 to a high-end iPod and roughly $150 to a BMW 323. A new sales tax rate of 8.75% in Los Angeles would be tied for the highest among the 88 cities in the county, along with Avalon on Santa Catalina Island.
On Wednesday, the 15-member council has to muster eight votes to ask the city attorney to draft the ballot measure. That could happen. Much less certain is whether 10 council members will decide by Feb. 11 to send the measure to voters in May.
About one-third of the council is leaning toward the plan and one-third against. The remaining third is undecided.
"I'm doing a lot of soul-searching because I'm the one talking to the families of the kids who are dying" because of violent crime, said Councilman Ed Reyes. "And now we're going to make it a game of political football and that's not right."
"I go to sleep every night knowing that I have a responsibility for this," echoed Councilman Tony Cardenas, who said he wasn't certain now was the right time to ask voters for an increase.
Police Chief William J. Bratton has been asking for more officers almost since the day he arrived in 2002. By many statistical measures, Bratton argues, Los Angeles is one of the most under-policed cities in the nation. He says 1,200 more officers are needed.
"Allow the residents of this city to vote and make a decision. Put it on the ballot, get ... out of the way," said Bratton Friday morning at a crime strategies session with Police Department brass. "Get it on the ballot and we'll get it to the goal line."
Bratton also said he was not optimistic the measure would survive a council vote. "We get a lot of lip service, but we don't get a lot of support," he said.
The most recent setback to raising money for more officers came in November, when voters in Los Angeles County rejected a similar half-penny sales tax measure that would have benefited the LAPD.
