Half Cent Sales Tax Increase

Los Angeles City Council President Alex Padilla unveiled a legally provocative plan Wednesday to put a half-cent sales-tax increase on the May ballot that he said could pass with just a majority of the vote, not the two-thirds usually required to raise taxes. Padilla and other officials said the increase would enable the city to expand the Los Angeles Police Department, which is understaffed compared with other major urban departments.

A plan for increasing the sales tax to fix Los Angeles' broken streets is on a collision course with a similar levy being pushed for regional transit projects. Two weeks ago, the top budget advisor to the Los Angeles City Council said a tax increase is the only way thousands of miles of severely damaged roads and sidewalks will get repaired. A half-cent increase in the sales tax, which would generate $4.5 billion over 15 years, should appear on the November ballot, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said.

Convinced that Orange County has exhausted its financial options for digging out of bankruptcy, county Chief Executive Officer William J. Popejoy unveiled a controversial proposal Wednesday to boost the county's sales tax by half a cent. Although county supervisors are unanimously opposed to any tax increase, Popejoy asked them to decide by March 28 whether to put the matter before voters in a special election June 27.

Re "More taxes for more transit?," Editorial, Nov. 24 When voters approved Measure R in 2008, it allowed our region to move forward on transportation improvements that benefited all of Los Angeles County. The half-cent sales tax increase changed L.A.'s landscape drastically, with a new dedicated busway, new light-rail connections and other major projects in the pipeline, including the Expo Line's extension to Santa Monica, the first half of the Gold Line extension to Azusa and the Crenshaw light-rail line to LAX. As Metro weighs a new tax measure, it must appeal to voters throughout the county.

With just six weeks remaining until a special statewide election, California Republicans attending their fall convention Saturday joined a lively debate about the two most controversial issues on the ballot--education and taxes. The school voucher initiative--Proposition 174--has been endorsed by the state Republican Party at two of its past conventions.

Measure M (Half-cent sales tax increase for transportation): YES Measure N (Irvine Human Rights Ordinance amendment): NO

In November, I will be asked to approve the half-cent sales tax increase to fund highway improvements that we now know means the addition of new diamond lanes. It will "only" cost me $75 a year. In June, 1990, I will be asked to approve another half-cent sales tax increase to build new jails. Again, it will "only" cost me $75 a year. This is great coming from a Board of Supervisors that voted itself (supervisors) a 25% salary increase. One final thought: Why is it that politicians only know how to do two things--raise taxes and raise their own salaries?

Re "O.C. Voters Reject Sales Tax Hike by 3-2 Margin," June 28: Whenever any one of my fellow Orange County residents complains to me about the terrible fallout from the bankruptcy, my first comment will be to ask that person, "Did you vote for Measure R?" If the answer is "No," my immediate response will be, "Then shut up." MARCIA L. GOODMAN Huntington Beach I'm a Vietnamese American, a registered voter, and voted no on R, of course. I do not want "to express" my "anger . . . to punish somebody," as Sheriff Brad Gates says I do. As one of the taxpayers, I just want the county to explore all the alternate opportunities to reduce the spending (not at the expense of the poor and helpless people, of course)

The board of a very small government agency--the Channel Islands Beach Community Services District--just passed a budget resulting in a $4-per-month water rate increase. Rate increases are so routine that most people do not even take note. They just write out the check and go back to work or to the TV set. Always, the offhand dismissal to protesters is that this is only $4 a month, only a half-cent sales tax increase, just a mere $1 a year more on your auto registration fee, really nothing at all. Only a little mandate here, a small regulation there.

Re "More taxes for more transit?," Editorial, Nov. 24 When voters approved Measure R in 2008, it allowed our region to move forward on transportation improvements that benefited all of Los Angeles County. The half-cent sales tax increase changed L.A.'s landscape drastically, with a new dedicated busway, new light-rail connections and other major projects in the pipeline, including the Expo Line's extension to Santa Monica, the first half of the Gold Line extension to Azusa and the Crenshaw light-rail line to LAX. As Metro weighs a new tax measure, it must appeal to voters throughout the county.

A ferocious battle between former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and the city's police and civilian unions broke out at City Hall on Tuesday, overshadowing a City Council action to help stabilize municipal finances by putting a sales tax increase on the ballot. The 82-year-old Riordan strode to the podium Tuesday morning, urging the council to refrain from putting a sales tax hike on the ballot until it exhausts other ways of repairing its chronically underfunded budget. "What Los Angeles needs is more jobs, not more taxes," Riordan said shortly before the council voted 11 to 4 to place a half-cent sales tax increase before voters during the March 5 primary.

A Laguna Beach sales tax increase that will raise money to pay for roads and other infrastructure damaged in a Bluebird Canyon landslide won voters' approval Tuesday. With all 12 precincts reporting, 55.7% of voters approved the half-cent-on-the-dollar sales tax increase. City officials were pleased with the results. "I'm just very relieved," said City Manager Kenneth C. Frank. "This is really the final piece of the puzzle to know how we're going to get out of this."

Los Angeles City Council President Alex Padilla unveiled a legally provocative plan Wednesday to put a half-cent sales-tax increase on the May ballot that he said could pass with just a majority of the vote, not the two-thirds usually required to raise taxes. Padilla and other officials said the increase would enable the city to expand the Los Angeles Police Department, which is understaffed compared with other major urban departments.

After a poll showing that voters would reject a combined half-cent tax increase for road and land preservation projects, Ventura County supervisors Tuesday will consider reverting to a more modest quarter-cent sales tax measure for land conservation only. Sixty percent of poll respondents said they would vote yes on the hybrid tax measure, short of the two-thirds supermajority needed for approval, according to survey results released Thursday.

The word wealthy seems to be stuck to Orange County like a big, gaudy tattoo. The county is constantly being characterized as one fat and happy place of Mercedeses, yachts and coastal estates. The bankruptcy has loosened the pens of more than a few pundits who see a quick, easy opportunity to juxtapose the financial catastrophe with what they assume is unbridled wealth. "Also in Money Paradise You Can Go Bankrupt," was how Germany's popular tabloid Bild conveyed the bankruptcy filing last December.

Saying the Orange County Board of Supervisors isn't working fast enough, the county's legislative delegation announced Monday it will draft its own alternative bankruptcy recovery plan. State lawmakers from Orange County plan to meet Wednesday in the Capitol to hash out details of a plan they contend is needed immediately so they can begin pushing legislation to make it work.

Orange County transportation commissioners are expected to say "one more time" at a workshop today focusing on whether to try again in November for voter approval of a half-cent sales tax increase to pay for highway and transit projects. If the workshop participants decide to go for it, the staff of the Orange County Transportation Commission will develop an election proposal for formal approval in March, county officials said.

Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday created an agency to place a half-cent sales tax increase on the November ballot to pay for new jails. Supervisor Pete Schabarum accused his colleagues of creating a "sham" agency to get around the requirement of Proposition 13 for two-thirds voter approval for a tax increase. Richard B. Dixon, the county's chief administrative officer, recommended seeking approval of the tax increase.

Re "O.C. Voters Reject Sales Tax Hike by 3-2 Margin," June 28: Whenever any one of my fellow Orange County residents complains to me about the terrible fallout from the bankruptcy, my first comment will be to ask that person, "Did you vote for Measure R?" If the answer is "No," my immediate response will be, "Then shut up." MARCIA L. GOODMAN Huntington Beach I'm a Vietnamese American, a registered voter, and voted no on R, of course. I do not want "to express" my "anger . . . to punish somebody," as Sheriff Brad Gates says I do. As one of the taxpayers, I just want the county to explore all the alternate opportunities to reduce the spending (not at the expense of the poor and helpless people, of course)