Council Agrees to Put Tax Plan for Police on June Ballot

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday tentatively voted to place on the June ballot a proposal to raise property taxes--about $60 a year for the average homeowner--to hire 1,000 more police officers over a five-year period.

The proposal would be the second of its kind to go before voters in four years. In 1981, they rejected a plan that would have raised property taxes to hire an additional 1,300 officers.

The council, which approved the measure on a 12-3 vote, must make a final decision by March 1 in order for the proposal to appear on the June ballot.

If voters approve the plan, the size of the department will be increased to just short of 8,000 officers--500 more than the department’s all time high, 7,500 officers, reached in 1975.

The estimated annual cost of paying for the new police would be about $56 million, although inflation could cause it to run higher.

The council rejected a proposal by Councilman John Ferraro to hire 1,300 officers without imposing new taxes. Ferraro argued that enough money could be found in the budget and in existing tax revenues.

After his proposal was defeated, Ferraro, who is running for mayor, said he would campaign against the plan endorsed by the council majority. Ferraro was joined by Councilmen Ernani Bernardi and Hal Bernson in opposing the council majority.

The fight for the plan was led by Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who argued that the proposed assessment would burden the average homeowner with a tiny tax increase, amounting to less than $5 a month.

“As I came to work this morning,” Yaroslavsky said, “I was left with the admonition of my wife that you pay more for milk, more for Monterey Jack cheese, more for a quarter pounder (a reference to a fast-food hamburger). . . .”

Nevertheless, several council members expressed the fear that the proposal has a slim chance of faring any better than a 1981 plan did. That plan, resoundingly rejected by voters, would have employed 1,350 police officers.

Supporters of the current plan, who include Mayor Tom Bradley, hope that differences in the financing of the two plans will make the current one more palatable to voters.

Under the 1981 approach, all homeowners would have paid the same amount--from $12 in the first year to $60 in the sixth year. The plan also imposed a sliding scale of assessments on commercial property, based only on lot size. Thus, a gas station would have been assessed the same amount as a high-rise office building if the lot sizes were the same.

The range of assessments now being proposed would vary for homes and commercial property and would be based on 32 cents for each 100 square feet of land and $2.36 for each 100 square feet of building space. In addition, the council tentatively adopted an amendment by Councilman David Cunningham that would “allow for an equitable distribution of said tax between all landlords and tenants in accordance with the provisions contained within the (city’s) Rent Stabilization Ordinance.”

The details of Cunningham’s proposal are to be worked out in time for the council’s final vote on the matter.

Assistant Police Chief Barry Wade said that the new personnel, who would be hired at a rate of 200 per year, would strengthen every police station in town by 39 to 70 officers. Wade said 77% of the officers would be assigned to uniformed patrol, 16% would be assigned to detective work, 4% to narcotics enforcement and 3% to the department’s drug counseling program in city schools.