Bradley Urges Compromise on Police Expansion Tax

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley Wednesday urged the City Council to reach a compromise that would let voters decide in June whether to levy a new tax on property owners to expand the police force.

Bradley didn’t propose his own plan to break an impasse between rival measures now being considered, but offered in a letter to the council to convene meetings aimed at reaching a settlement.

The plans under consideration would add 500 or 1,000 officers to the Los Angeles Police Department and finance the expansion through a new property tax. The council was unable to agree to submit either measure to voters before the deadline for making the April ballot passed.

In his letter, Bradley said: “We must concentrate our efforts on merging the various proposals . . . selecting and incorporating the best features of each into an overall compromise plan” before the mid-February deadline to qualify for the June vote.

At issue is the method of financing the new officers.

Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who proposed adding 1,000 officers over five years, has recommended they be paid for by a flat tax on land owners. Most residences would be assessed $6 a month, with commercial and residential parcels larger than a half-acre charged $18 a month.

Critics, including Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, contend that the formula would make lower-income homeowners in Watts and other areas pay the same as wealthy landowners in Bel-Air and the Hollywood Hills, where many expensive homes are located on less than a half-acre of land.

Yaroslavsky is sponsoring the rival measure to add 500 officers with a tax based on the square footage of property and improvements. He contends it would be more fair, but others say it would confuse voters and jeopardize the passage of any police expansion tax.

Bradley also offered his support for a campaign to pass a measure, which, because of the provisions of 1978’s Proposition 13, would require approval from two-thirds of the city’s voters.

Both camps said they welcomed the mayor’s offer to get involved and expressed optimism about a compromise.