Eu’s Anti-Crime Initiative Fails

Secretary of State March Fong Eu said today that her “Dimes Against Crimes” initiative to boost liquor taxes to raise an estimated $156 million a year for local law enforcement failed to collect enough signatures to make the June ballot.

Today was the deadline for her to submit 595,485 signatures of registered voters. The campaign collected about 500,000 signatures, said Eu spokesman Anthony Miller. She proposed the initiative after she was attacked in her Los Angeles home by an ax-wielding intruder in November, 1986. It would have increased the tax by 10 cents on each half-pint of 100-proof-or-less distilled spirits and by 20 cents per half-pint on over-100-proof liquor.