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#  Hold On to Your Wallets, It’s Ballot Season

Written by Jack Humphreville.

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August 12 2024

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LA WATCHDOG - In November, will you vote to increase the City’s sales tax by 1.1 cents to 10.6%? Or will you vote to increase your property taxes by 13%? No way.

When you aggregate the impact of four financial related ballot measures that cover three different jurisdictions (State, County, and LAUSD) on residents of the City of Los Angeles, we will be hit with over $1 billion in new taxes.

Proposition 2, the Public Education Facilities Bond Measure, will authorize the issuance of $10 billion in bonds by the State to fund construction and modernization of public education facilities. The debt service will be $600 million a year. Based on the City’s 10% share of the State’s population, our share is $60 million a year.

Proposition 4, the Parks, Environment, Energy and Water Bond Measure, will authorize the issuance of $10 billion in bonds by the State to fund state and local parks, environmental protection projects, water infrastructure projects, energy projects, and flood protection projects. The debt service will be $600 million a year. Based on the City’s 10% share of the State’s population, our share is $60 million a year.

Measure A, the homeless sales tax, will increase permanently the County’s sales tax by a half cent and will raise $1.2 billion a year to fund homeless services and prevention. Based on the City’s 40% of the County’s population, Angelenos will be on the hook for almost $500 million.

LAUSD is proposing a ballot measure that will authorize the issuance of $9 billion in bonds to finance the updating of its campuses. The annual debt service is expected to be $540 million a year. Based on our 85% share of the school district’s assessed value, our share is $460 million per year.

Overall, our proportionate share will total $1.08 billion. This is equal to a 13% increase in our property taxes of $8.56 billion or a 1.1% increase in our sales tax to 10.6%. Alternatively, this amounts to $260 for each of the four million Angelenos or over $1,000 for a family of four.

This is just another example of how our self-serving politicians are piecemealing tax increases through various jurisdictions and different election cycles, hoping that we will not notice the cumulative hits to our wallets.

What Angelenos and Californians do not need is more taxes. We are already the highest taxed state in the country. Think sales, gas, income and corporate taxes, a slew of other taxes and regulations, and the highest power rates in the Continental US. No wonder the City, the County, and the State are losing jobs, people, businesses, and employers. Enough already.

Vote NO and send a message to our less than transparent elected elite and their cronies.

\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*

Note: Our property tax of 8,56 billion is equal to 1% of the $856 billion of Assessed Value of January 1, 2024. These funds are distributed not only to the City, but to the County, LAUSD, and other government entities.

*(Jack Humphreville writes LA Watchdog for CityWatch. He is the President of the DWP Advocacy Committee, the Budget and DWP representative for the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council, and a Neighborhood Council Budget Advocate. He can be reached at: <lajack@gmail.com>. )*

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