Council Places Parks Tax Proposal on Ballot

The Los Angeles City Council took final action Wednesday to place a citywide assessment for parks improvements on the November ballot.

The tax, which would pay to acquire land and make capital improvements at parks throughout the city, requires a simple majority vote and would raise about $200 million a year for two decades.

It would cost the average homeowner about $18 a year, and will join similar parks-related taxes sponsored by the Los Angeles Unified School District, the Los Angeles Community College District and the county’s Board of Supervisors.

Council members also voted unanimously Wednesday to place several charter-reform measures on the fall ballot, but decided to postpone other items until the April election for fear the ballot would be too cluttered.

Among the items that will be on the ballot are reforms to allow the Department of Water and Power to compete in a deregulated marketplace, changes in the makeup of the Ethics Commission, and audits every five years for the DWP and the city’s airport and harbor departments. Postponed will be measures that would allow the city to conduct future elections by mail, and that would delete obsolete regulations for balloting.