2 Council Panels Back Tax Plan to Add 1,000 Officers

Two Los Angeles City Council committees gave their stamp of approval Tuesday to a property tax plan that would add 1,000 officers to the Police Department, but not before a discussion of how the tax would be divided between homeowners and renters.

The Finance and Revenue and the Police, Fire and Public Safety committees recommended that the council place the measure on the June ballot. If approved by two-thirds of the voters, it would cost the average homeowner $58 a year.

The full council has talked only in general terms about how the costs could be borne by both homeowners and tenants. At the joint meeting Tuesday, City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie said the yearly average tax bill for a landlord would be a maximum of $20 per unit. The council would have to amend the city’s rent control ordinance in order for some of the costs to be passed on to tenants, Comrie said.

Councilman David Cunningham called for tenants and landlords to share the costs equally and suggested that the provision be included in the City Charter amendment language if it goes on the June ballot.

“If it’s not placed in the Charter, the council has the ability to keep changing how the costs are split,” said Cunningham, a foe of rent control.

The proposal now goes to the Charter and Elections Committee, where Chairwoman Peggy Stevenson is expected to move it quickly into the council, perhaps as soon as next week. The council must vote by Feb. 13 in order to place it on the June ballot.

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, chairman of the finance committee, called the proposed amendment “the only hope this city has of hiring this quantity of officers, the best and last hope of the decade.”

Yaroslavsky was one of the council members who met with Mayor Tom Bradley last week to endorse the police expansion plan. The plan has become embroiled in mayoral politics between Bradley and opponent Councilman John Ferraro, who has proposed adding 1,300 officers by cutting the budgets of most other city departments.

Councilman Marvin Braude, who did not attend last week’s meeting with the mayor because he was upset about Bradley’s approval of oil drilling in Pacific Palisades, said Tuesday that he will give his wholehearted support to the plan to add 1,000 officers.