Let Voters Decide Tax Hike

Los Angeles County needs more cops. No one seems to dispute this assertion, except maybe crooks. The quandary is how to pay for them, since no one likes to raise taxes. With a little gumption, the Board of Supervisors could break through this stalemate today and vote to put a measure on the November ballot to hike the sales tax by half a cent.

Raising the sales tax to 8.75% is better than the alternatives now on the table. One, from Supervisor Mike Antonovich, would shift $46 million from county health services to the sheriff. To plug the hole in health services, Antonovich would use tobacco tax revenues, a dwindling source of funds never intended for day-to-day operations. The money shifted to the sheriff would be used only to increase patrols in unincorporated areas, home to 10% of the county’s population, or about 1 million people. It would do nothing for the almost 9 million people who live in the county’s 88 cities.

Ordinarily a staunch foe of taxes, Antonovich offered a surprising second alternative -- a quarter-cent county sales tax hike, to be matched by cities. Unfortunately, cities could opt out, increasing the competition for auto dealers and big-box stores that generate hefty sales tax income. The cities that raised taxes would risk losing business to the ones that didn’t, with retailers setting up shop across city boundaries to save their customers a few pennies.

A backup plan by the Los Angeles City Council to put a tax increase on the city ballot suffers the same defect. Crime doesn’t recognize city lines. Neither should a sales tax to fight crime. Yet another option, one that’s been popular for far too many years, is to do nothing but wring hands over the fact that L.A. County’s 10 million people are policed by just 27,000 police officers and sheriff’s deputies, compared with New York City’s 8 million people and 39,000 officers.

New York City raised taxes. The Board of Supervisors, by state law, can’t do that without the approval of two-thirds of voters. How much gumption does it take to at least allow voters that choice?