Too Many Taxes for Too Few Results

Re “Council Weighs Tax for Police,” Oct. 16: I believe, by now, that all property owners have received their 2003-04 property tax bills. Following are two property tax bills, one for a property in L.A. County and the other for one in the city of L.A.: The L.A. County property has a general tax levy of $5,775.15 (which I would like to see broken down according to what it is supposed to fund); voted indebtedness adds $295.43; and then there are direct assessments of $457.92 ($173 of that for the schools; $84.21 for trauma centers; $49.93 for the Fire Department, etc.), bringing the total property tax on this parcel to $6,528.50.

The other property has a general tax levy of $2,997.56; voted indebtedness of $313.41 ($231.25 for the schools) and direct assessments of $773.90, which include funding the Fire Department, trauma centers, etc.

Councilman Alex Padilla wants us to tax ourselves to hire more police, and Councilman Dennis Zine asks, “At what point do you say enough is enough?” Now, councilmen, now.

Judy Ryan

Rancho Palos Verdes

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Sounds about right: Give police another huge raise, then ask the taxpayer to foot the bill to add more officers. According to figures on the LAPD and NYPD Web sites, a starting LAPD officer makes about $10,000 more a year than a new NYPD officer. It takes about five years before an NYPD officer reaches $54,000. It takes about three years for an LAPD officer to reach that much. A big reason that the NYPD has so many more officers is because their pay is in line with what their city can afford. I appreciate what the LAPD officers do, but they can’t have it both ways. They receive outstanding pay, benefits and pensions for a job that requires only a high school diploma. But if they need more officers, then they need to start figuring it out within the budget they are allotted.

Dan Rayser

Bellflower