Bonds and tax hikes may fill ballot

Five months ago, elected officials across California salivated at the prospect of putting their favorite tax measures on the Nov. 4 presidential election ballot, just as voter turnout is expected to soar, especially among Democrats amenable to tax hikes and borrowing.

But with the election less than four months away, the ballot could wind up being overstuffed with financial requests at a time when voters are reeling from higher fuel prices, falling stocks and an economy on the skids.

The Los Angeles City Council voted Friday to put a $30-million anti-gang tax on the ballot. The Los Angeles Community College District has prepared its own $3.5-billion property tax increase to repair and replace aging campuses -- and train students to use “green” technologies. And other tax boosts are expected to compete for voters’ increasingly light pocketbooks.

“With the state of the economy, I think all tax proposals could be in serious difficulty,” said Republican political analyst Allan Hoffenblum. “People are driving less, they’re doing less.”

As he supports the new anti-gang tax, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has also been pushing for a half-cent countywide sales tax increase to raise at least $30 billion over three decades for road and rail projects, including his much-touted subway to the sea. And the Los Angeles Board of Education is considering a $3.2-billion school construction bond measure, its fifth in a decade.

Those local tax items coincide with efforts in Sacramento to persuade voters to issue bonds -- that is, allow the state to borrow money -- for hospitals, high-speed rail and alternative-fuel vehicles.

Still, the pending competition has not discouraged Los Angeles Councilwoman Janice Hahn, the driving force behind the anti-gang tax, which would pay for arts, athletics and after-school programs for children.

Hahn, whose district includes several neighborhoods hard hit by gang violence, said traffic and crime are voters’ prime anxieties right now, with or without the lagging economy. For weeks, she has been arguing that supporters of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama will embrace the measure.

“I believe that the people who come out in November to possibly elect the first African American president of the United States are people who understand this concept of investing in our kids at the front end of their life, rather than the back end of their life,” Hahn told a crowd of lobbyists and consultants earlier this week.

In the Feb. 5 presidential primary, voter turnout reached 55.3%, fueled largely by interest in the Democratic contest between Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y). In that election, a school bond issue in San Gabriel received 70% of the vote. A community college bond issue in Long Beach received 74%. And a utility tax in Huntington Park took 78% of the vote.

Hahn originally wanted her anti-gang measure on the same ballot but held off so it would not provide competition for a Los Angeles utility tax.

The councilwoman has been pushing for the anti-gang tax in part because of the December 2006 slaying of Cheryl Green, 14, in what was called a racially motivated attack in Harbor Gateway, the narrow strip of land that connects the bulk of Los Angeles with the harbor area.

The tax would require a two-thirds vote, a higher threshold than the measure being weighed by L.A. Unified, which would need only 55%. Still, Hahn’s proposal would cost relatively little -- $36 per parcel of land per year -- compared with most of the other measures expected to reach the ballot.

Villaraigosa, who saw administration of the city’s anti-gang programs transferred to his office July 1, has been trying to persuade officials throughout the county to line up behind the half-cent sales tax increase, which would direct billions of dollars to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

That measure has been put in danger as representatives of the San Gabriel Valley and the Eastside have warned that their communities might not see enough of a benefit from such a tax. Similar rumblings have come from Long Beach and cities immediately north of it.

Meanwhile, foes of increased taxes say Los Angeles officials are woefully out of touch, failing to recognize the pressures faced by consumers every day.

“There’s some kind of disconnect between our elected officials, who are the highest paid in the nation, and the average citizen, who is fighting to hold on to his home, job and pay the higher cost of food prices and gasoline,” said Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Assn.

A representative of the L.A. Community College District said he believed the region’s economic woes could actually encourage voters to support a $3.5-billion bond measure to repair educational buildings, make campuses more energy-efficient and train students to perform such tasks as repairing hydrogen-powered cars.

“The indications we’re getting so far is that people think that community colleges are critical to reviving the economy in L.A., and that it is unique among the [ballot] measures,” said Larry Eisenberg, the district’s executive director of facilities planning and development.

In Los Angeles, city officials have been coping with the economic downturn by agreeing to nearly $100 million in fee increases, from raising the cost of parking tickets to making entry at municipal golf courses more expensive. In two years, trash removal fees have tripled for homeowners and residents of small apartment buildings.

Meanwhile, smaller cities in the county are pursuing their own tax measures. Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster has proposed a $571-million infrastructure bond measure that would rely on higher property taxes to fix fire stations, parks and other public facilities. The City Council is expected to decide later this month whether to put such a measure on the ballot.

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david.zahniser@latimes.com

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Taxes, bonds and the ballot

During the Nov. 4 presidential election, voters in Los Angeles County could be asked to borrow money or to tax themselves to pay for transportation, schools, anti-gang programs and other public services.

State measures

$9.95 billion in bonds for high-speed rail

$5 billion in bonds for alternative-fuel vehicles and renewable energy

$980 million in bonds for building and equipping state children’s hospitals

Local measures

$30-billion sales tax boost over 30 years for roads and rail in Los Angeles County (proposed)

$3.5-billion property tax hike for facilities in the Los Angeles Community College District

$3.2-billion property tax increase for construction in the Los Angeles Unified School District (proposed)

$30-million property tax increase in the city of Los Angeles for anti-gang programs

Source: Los Angeles Times