LA WATCHDOG – Shall an ordinance providing funding for the Los Angeles Fire Department, including for hiring firefighters, paramedics, and other staff, purchasing and maintaining vehicles and equipment, building and upgrading fire stations, and brush clearance; by imposing a one-half percent (0.5%) sales tax in the City of Los Angeles; with annual audits and a citizen’s oversight committee; generating approximately $345 million annually until ended by voters; be adopted?
The union representing 3,600 firefighters and paramedics, United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, has gathered enough signatures to place Initiative Ordinance FD on the ballot. If approved by the voters, it would increase our sale tax by a half cent to 10¾%. This would be one of the highest rates in California.
[Note: Since 2008, our sales tax has increased from 8¼% to 10¼%: Measures M (2008) and R (2016) to benefit Metro, Measure A (2024) for homeless services, and Measure ER (2026) for healthcare services.]
This measure is just another example of City Hall’s fiscal irresponsibility over the last twenty years. During this period, the City revenues have increased at twice the rate of inflation and growth in population. And yet every year we have a budget crisis where the Mayor and the City Council scramble to patch together a balanced budget relying on service reductions and gimmicks. We also have to tolerate (suffer?) our neglected lunar cratered streets, cracked sidewalks, poorly maintained parks, and our understaffed and poorly equipped police and fire departments.
The City’s perennial fiscal problems are the result of our elected elite entering - knowingly - into a series of budget busting labor agreements that gave away the store to the City’s politically powerful public sector unions that also finance their political campaigns.
Since UFCLA believes that the Fire Department and its members (and their salaries and benefits) have been shortchanged during the chaotic budget negotiations, it has placed this measure on the ballot to supplement its existing budget of over $1.5 billion.
The union and its supporters also believe that sympathetic Angelenos will also be swayed by the devastating Palisades fire.
There is no doubt that the Fire Department has significant needs: staffing, fire stations, vehicles, and equipment. But this is also true for all City departments, including Police, Street Services, Street Lighting, Sanitation, Street Lighting, and Animal Services that provide vital services. Which is why this Initiative Ordinance D is not in the best interests of Angelenos since it does not address all of the City’s needs.
This is classic case of ballot box budgeting where the union (a special interest) has weaponized the initiative process to get around the legislative process and competing interests.
This ballot measure also appears to have the support of the Mayor and City Council, in large part because they do not oppose this measure and antagonize the well-funded UFCLA.
We should also reject this measure because the City has not engaged in any meaningful budget reform. This would involve open and transparent labor negotiations and an ordinance (or even better, a ballot measure) that would prohibit the City from entering into any labor agreement that would create a current or future deficit. These reforms were ignored by the Charter Reform Commission whose members were appointed by the Mayor and City Council with no instructions to reform the budget process.
Before the City and its unions ask us for any more money, the City needs to develop a comprehensive plan to address our infrastructure and the deferred maintenance budget, public safety, and budget and fiscal reform.
Finally, a regressive 10¾% sales tax is another burden on our lower income residents, making the City more unaffordable.
Vote NO on Initiative Ordinance FD.
(Jack Humphreville writes the LA Watchdog column for CityWatch, where he covers city finances, utilities, and accountability at City Hall. He is President of the DWP Advocacy Committee, serves as the Budget and DWP representative for the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council, and is a longtime Neighborhood Council Budget Advocate. With a sharp focus on fiscal responsibility and transparency, Jack brings an informed and independent voice to Los Angeles civic affairs. He can be reached at [email protected].)
