County Seeks Power to Levy Cigarette Tax

The Board of Supervisors launched a new effort Tuesday to pressure state lawmakers into giving financially strapped Los Angeles County the authority to impose a local cigarette tax in an effort to avert even deeper cuts in the county’s crippled health care system.

The supervisors’ unanimous support for higher tobacco taxes came hours after the board agreed with county health czar Burt Margolin to avoid further cuts for health centers and clinics beyond those now in the works. But the possibility of deeper cuts remains.

If Sacramento and Washington do not come to the county’s financial rescue, Margolin warned in a meeting with The Times’ editorial board, the county may still have to close hospitals and significantly downsize County-USC Medical Center in addition to closing most county health centers and clinics.

“Hospitals are still on the table,” Margolin said. “Oct. 1 is the budget balancing date. If all these various budget balancing projections leave the board with a shortfall that’s significant, the board will have no choice but to close hospitals to balance its budget.”

Pushing the cigarette-tax proposal, board Chairwoman Gloria Molina said the Legislature must provide the county with the power to raise new revenues. “If they want to assist us in preventing the layoffs and cutbacks in clinics, they have to roll up their sleeves and get to work on revenue-raising authority for L.A. County. That is the only answer,” she said.

The county is moving ahead with plans to close six health centers and 28 clinics Oct. 1, but still faces an additional $350-million deficit in the health budget.

The board’s action Tuesday embraced Margolin’s plan to cover a $25-million gap that resulted when Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed a hastily crafted bill that would have taken $75 million from Metropolitan Transportation Authority coffers. The county is still banking on a one-time infusion of $50 million in MTA funds to ease its fiscal crisis.

The $25-million gap was closed by slightly higher than expected federal funding, $10 million in savings from the previous health budget and cost reductions in equipment purchases and construction projects.

The board displayed no interest in cutting deeper into health programs while its hope for additional help from Sacramento remains alive.

After setbacks in efforts to raid the MTA, boost the sales tax and win the power to tax alcoholic beverages sold in bars and restaurants, the supervisors unanimously embraced new legislation proposed by Assembly Democrats to give county supervisors statewide the power to impose local cigarette taxes without a vote of the people.

Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman (D-Los Angeles) and Assembly Democratic Leader Willie Brown of San Francisco said an extra tax of 25 cents a pack, which Wilson opposes, would raise $120 million a year for Los Angeles County and $34.4 million for bankrupt Orange County.

“This gives counties the ability to solve their own problems,” said Friedman. “It’s not a handout.”

Friedman, supported by a coalition of health and county supervisor organizations and Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block, announced the proposal in the face of Wilson’s adamant opposition to new taxes.

“The governor doesn’t think we should be raising taxes in California, period,” said press secretary Paul Kranhold. As an alternative, Kranhold said Wilson supports a package of county government relief bills in the Legislature that Democrats oppose.

In another effort to obtain more funds, state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) plans to introduce a new bill to tap the MTA for $48 million annually for four years.

So far, the county’s efforts to extract more money from Sacramento have achieved little success.

Margolin told the editorial board that the county’s lobbying for more state money was running into trouble because of historic tensions between the supervisors and legislators. There remains “a lot of mistrust” of the county in Sacramento, he said.

But he said he sensed a shift in attitudes toward the county because of the seriousness of the health funding crisis. “They are beginning to realize this is a catastrophe in the making,” he said.

The supervisors were also told Tuesday that the $373-million high-rise jail complex now being completed east of Union Station may not open because the county cannot afford to operate it.

Assistant Sheriff Michael Graham said his department is exploring a number of options, including contracting with the state to house prison inmates at the high-security complex, which will be finished next month.

When the facility--where prisoners will be confined to computer-controlled pods--was designed in the 1980s, Graham said, no one foresaw the economic difficulties facing the state. He said it will cost the county at least $75 million a year to staff the jail complex.

Meantime, the supervisors unanimously agreed to allow the hiring of 80 new deputies for the Sheriff’s Department.

Because of the county’s fiscal crisis, the board imposed a “hard hiring freeze,” which prohibits county departments from hiring additional employees.

Block sought an exemption so his agency could hire 350 new deputies and 300 civilian workers, but the board rejected the full request.

While emphasizing that law enforcement remains one of their highest priorities, the supervisors agreed to allow only one new training class at this time. And they instructed the sheriff to carve at least $3.5 million from his budget before more hiring is authorized. The supervisors warned other departments not to expect exemptions from the hiring freeze.

Times staff writers Douglas P. Shuit in Los Angeles and Carl Ingram in Sacramento contributed to this story.