County Abandons Bill to Raise Cigarette Tax

Facing a stony wall of opposition and censure in the Legislature, Los Angeles County officials have virtually abandoned hope of passing a state cigarette tax bill that would have provided millions of dollars to shore up the county’s teetering budget.

“We’re not pushing it anymore,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Ed Edelman said.

The proposed increase of 17 cents in the cigarette tax, which is now 35 cents a pack, would have returned $114 million to the county this year. It was viewed as being essential in helping the county resolve its fiscal crisis.

The county’s $13.5-billion budget, adopted last month, calls for 2,000 layoffs and deep cuts in health and welfare programs. To restore those service cuts, county officials estimate they need about $400 million. The extra cigarette tax revenue would probably have been used for the sheriff’s and district attorney’s offices, the Probation Department and the county’s general relief welfare program.

But the tax carried a controversial price tag: strong backing by the tobacco lobby because of a provision that would have preempted local anti-smoking ordinances, such as Los Angeles’ restaurant smoking ban.

The proposal stalled in a Senate committee, but not before earning the county the scorn of many of its own legislators and exposing weaknesses in the county’s Sacramento lobbying effort. County officials concede there is little hope of squeezing any more funds from the Legislature to plug the funding gap.

Passage of the cigarette tax proposal was part of a chancy strategy in which county supervisors delayed many cuts and layoffs until after next Wednesday in the hopes that the state would ride to the rescue. Supervisors also are gambling that state voters will approve the extension of a half-cent sales tax scheduled to expire Jan. 1. If the extension measure on the November ballot fails, the county will be forced to hack $200 million more out its programs.

Two other funding bills in Sacramento, which the county is counting on to keep some libraries and health clinics open, are faring better. But some legislators seem to retain a suspicion that Los Angeles County is not to be trusted with additional state aid.

Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley), contends that the supervisors “are not being leaders. I don’t think they have really sat down and gone over their whole administration before making these cuts.”

The county has been assailed for having too many high-paid executives, for perks such as chauffeurs and bulletproof cars and for having insincerely pleaded poverty too many times in the past.

County officials counter that the budget crisis was precipitated by the Legislature earlier this year when it shifted $500 million in property taxes from the county to the California school districts.

But many legislators said the county dug itself into a political hole during state budget deliberations by pleading for more money while offering few ideas of its own.

“L.A. County did a miserable job in making its case and in helping the L.A. (legislative) delegation fight for it,” said Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Brentwood).

Friedman, who is carrying a rival bill that would ban smoking in most workplaces, said he was incensed by the county’s support of the cigarette tax. “I find it unconscionable and deplorable that the county would contemplate making a deal with the devil tobacco industry to try to . . . prevent closing of needed services,” he said. “It makes it harder for me and my colleagues to support some of their other proposals.”

The cigarette tax was doomed when the proposal gained almost no support from the California State Assn. of Counties. Representatives of only two of the 58 counties--Los Angeles and Nevada counties--backed it.

Despite the county’s setbacks, many Los Angeles-area legislators say they are likely to support other county-sponsored bills.

One (SB 566) by Sen David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys), would allow cities and counties with libraries to set up assessment districts and issue limited obligation bonds to build new libraries. Forty-three of the county’s 87 libraries face closure if the assessment district bill is defeated.

The other bill (AB 1038), sponsored by Assemblywoman Marguerite Archie-Hudson (D-Los Angeles), would waive a matching-fund requirement and allow the county to receive about $72 million in state tobacco tax funds to keep open 24 health clinics.

Another is AB 2373, which would allow counties to shift money from special funds into their general funds and allow increases in a variety of county fees. But the proposal has split some county officials, with Sheriff Sherman Block, for example, opposing it.

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown is carrying the library measure on the Assembly floor on behalf of Roberti. The powerful San Francisco Democrat also said he favors Assemblywoman Archie-Hudson’s measure to fund health clinics.

But Brown cautioned that his support has been prompted by Assembly members pushing for the proposal, saying he has not seen “any thaw in the relationship” between Legislature and the board.

Other legislators, however, were more sympathetic:

“I think there is genuine empathy here for their situation, particularly relative to the health clinics,” said Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar). “We will try to find ways to help.”