Tax Increase Measures Won’t Go on Ballot

A deadlocked Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors decided by default this week not to place a series of measures on the November ballot that would allow residents of the county’s unincorporated areas to vote on recent tax increases.

With board members Mike Antonovich and Deane Dana in favor and Zev Yaroslavsky and Gloria Molina abstaining, the board declined to place increases in taxes on utility bills, hotel rooms, amusement park tickets, landfills and waste disposal before the voters.

Over the strenuous objections of board Chairman Antonovich, whose district includes the largest unincorporated area, the county will continue to collect and place in a reserve account an estimated $110 million from the taxes during the next two years.

The supervisors have discussed the tax issue frequently in recent weeks as they have struggled to deal with the impact of a state court decision last fall that upheld the constitutionality of Proposition 62. The ballot measure, approved by the state’s voters in 1988, required that taxes for general purposes must be approved by a majority of the voters and special taxes by a two-thirds majority.

Legislation sought by cities and counties that could affect the court decision is being considered in the final weeks of this year’s legislative session.