COLUMN RIGHT / JOEL FOX : More Police We Need; More Taxes We Don’t : Voters won’t go for another self-inflicted hardship. Find the money by privatizing services.

The city of Los Angeles needs more police officers. The residents of Los Angeles do not need more property taxes.

Mayor Tom Bradley wants to place a parcel tax on Los Angeles property to pay for 1,000 new police officers and 200 support personnel. As yet, the mayor hasn’t explained why these additional 1,200 employees will cost the taxpayers an average of $83,333 per worker.

It matters little because this plan will sink. The proposal is no more than a ghost of a dragon slain twice before by the taxpayers in 1981 and 1985. In those elections, the mayor proposed adding police by raising a parcel tax. Neither effort secured the two-thirds vote required.

To paraphrase Will Rogers, I never met a tax I liked. However, the parcel tax is a particularly onerous one. The amount of the parcel tax is measured by the square-footage of property, not the property owner’s ability to pay.

The parcel tax falls unfairly on property owners. A property-tax increase of $100 could be a 20% increase on some long-time homeowners on fixed income. Under the current rent-control law in the city of Los Angeles, such a tax cannot be passed on to tenants by apartment owners. Many tenants could vote for the obligation without incurring the tax liability.

Los Angeles suffers from a severe recession. Unemployment hovers around 10%. The tax increase will do nothing to stimulate the economy (even if 1,200 people get new jobs). When the state raised taxes a record amount last year, it brought in less revenue than the year before. The tax increase was a drag on the economy.

Calling for a tax increase seems to be Mayor Bradley’s favorite method of dealing with the city’s budget. In 1987, the city increased the utility tax. In 1990, the city increased the parking tax. In 1991, the city raised the transfer tax on property. Now it’s a parcel tax. That doesn’t count service charges and fee increases such as the dramatic sewer-charge increase.

As economic policy, this tax idea is a bad one. However, as public policy the idea of adding more police officers is a good one. How do we get more police without raising taxes?

First, let’s start with the proposition that the government’s primary duty is to protect its citizens. Therefore, police protection must become the top priority of government and must be funded first and fully until the duty to protect the community is met.

If we finish allocating public money on government’s fundamental obligations and there is none left for “other” services, then those services must suffer. Los Angeles has a fund of $10 million for the arts and festivals. In fact, Los Angeles has a tax set aside just for art. Art fulfills the human spirit. But it is government’s job to protect, not to entertain.

City officials should look for money in other funds, including the millions sitting in a parking-meter fund.

And, finally, city leaders must follow the recommendation of the chief administrative officer, follow the example of Los Angeles County, follow the suggestions in a 4-year-old report from the Reason Foundation: introduce privatization for some city services. The Reason study suggests that the city can save $440 million by privatizing services such as solid-waste collection, asphalt resurfacing and street sweeping, among others. As New York Gov. Mario Cuomo said, “It is not government’s obligation to provide services, but to see that they are provided.”

Let the city try only 25% of what the Reason Foundation recommended and it will have the $100 million the mayor says is needed for police. Let the city try 50% and 2,000 officers can be hired without a tax increase.

Many City Council members, when they voted to put the parcel tax on the ballot, predicted it would fail at the polls. I think they are right. Then why go to the expense of an election and a campaign?

Most people agree that Los Angeles needs more police. Let’s make the budget’s first priority funding the police force fully out of existing revenues and take the opportunity to restructure the city’s delivery of services in the process.