McCarthy Pushes Sales Tax Hike as Remedy for Drugs

Will California voters increase the sales tax to fight drugs?

Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy believes they will if he can get enough TV footage of places like MacArthur Park in central Los Angeles.

That is where McCarthy announced his Safe Streets Initiative on Tuesday, a measure that would raise the state sales tax by one-half cent on each dollar sale if the voters approve it on the November, 1990, ballot.

As McCarthy spoke, clots of desperate-looking men roamed the park, which contains a children’s playground at Wilshire Boulevard and Alvarado Street.

“A few days ago a member of my staff came out here to scout this location,” McCarthy said, “and in five minutes at this playground he was approached four times by drug dealers.”

On Tuesday, it was business as usual in the park--a nod here and there and an endless series of brief rendezvous.

Most of the roving men seemed unaware that the city’s top cop, Chief Daryl F. Gates, was standing at the lieutenant governor’s side.

Gates, who came in street clothes, said he will not formally endorse the initiative “because this is a matter for the voters to decide.”

But he said he liked “some things in it,” and by lending his presence to the announcement in front of reporters and television cameras, Gates all but endorsed the measure.

Gates, a Republican, recalled that when McCarthy, a Democrat, brought the initiative to him, “I read it through and decided there was a lot in here I can support.”

McCarthy estimated that the half-cent sales tax increase would raise $1.6 billion in the first year.

In order to qualify for the November, 1990, ballot, it needs 372,000 valid voter signatures by June.

The lieutenant governor’s proposal would disburse the money this way:

- Spend 42% ($672 million) on anti-drug education efforts, including in-school and after-school programs designated by the state superintendent of public instruction.

- Allocate 40% ($640 million) to law enforcement agencies in a formula that takes into account population and drug-related arrests.

- Set aside 10% ($160 million) for jails and prisons.

- Spend 8% ($128 million) on drug treatment and rehabilitation programs at the discretion of the governor-appointed secretary of health and welfare.

With crime and drugs still topping the voters’ agenda, according to the most recent Los Angeles Times Poll, the McCarthy initiative would also deny early release from prison based on good behavior to those convicted of violent crimes or selling drugs to children.

“A person who has repeatedly committed violent crimes or major drug crimes should not be let out early, no matter how he behaves in jail,” McCarthy said.

Gates then took the microphone and said, “The most important part of this initiative is to direct money to the front end of the system.

“If this initiative is the way the voters want to go, I can assure them the money will be well spent in their communities,” added Gates, who helped start DARE, the city program that teaches schoolchildren how to resist the drug culture.

Wasn’t that an endorsement?

“No, I have an aversion to endorsements,” said Gates.

McCarthy was asked if he thinks the voters are ready for such an unvarnished attempt to raise taxes.

“Is it important to save the next generation by teaching kids in drug prevention classes?” he responded. “When we put these specific programs to the people and ask should we spend a half-penny to do these things, I am confident the people of California will vote for this initiative.”

Gates agreed: “If the voters see the narcotics problem as a disaster not just to this state but to the whole nation, they will be very very willing to do something about it.”

He then strode toward his car, and by this time the word had gotten around. Two of the hard-looking men ran off and out of the park when they spotted the chief.

BACKGROUND

The basic California sales tax is 6%, although Los Angeles and some other localities have added another 0.5% in recent years. Food, medicine and rent are exempt.