Council Is Split Over Sales Tax Increase

A divided Los Angeles City Council will grapple this week with the question of whether voters should be allowed to decide on a half-penny sales tax hike to pay for more police officers.

Everyone on the council agrees that more cops are desperately needed. What they don’t agree on is whether a higher tax would drive business from the city -- or whether it would actually lead to a safer, better-policed city and attract more businesses.

If it were to pass, the increase would add about two cents to a double-double combo at In-N-Out, $2 to a high-end iPod and roughly $150 to a BMW 323. A new sales tax rate of 8.75% in Los Angeles would be tied for the highest among the 88 cities in the county, along with Avalon on Santa Catalina Island.

On Wednesday, the 15-member council has to muster eight votes to ask the city attorney to draft the ballot measure. That could happen. Much less certain is whether 10 council members will decide by Feb. 11 to send the measure to voters in May.

About one-third of the council is leaning toward the plan and one-third against. The remaining third is undecided.

“I’m doing a lot of soul-searching because I’m the one talking to the families of the kids who are dying” because of violent crime, said Councilman Ed Reyes. “And now we’re going to make it a game of political football and that’s not right.”

“I go to sleep every night knowing that I have a responsibility for this,” echoed Councilman Tony Cardenas, who said he wasn’t certain now was the right time to ask voters for an increase.

Police Chief William J. Bratton has been asking for more officers almost since the day he arrived in 2002. By many statistical measures, Bratton argues, Los Angeles is one of the most under-policed cities in the nation. He says 1,200 more officers are needed.

“Allow the residents of this city to vote and make a decision. Put it on the ballot, get ... out of the way,” said Bratton Friday morning at a crime strategies session with Police Department brass. “Get it on the ballot and we’ll get it to the goal line.”

Bratton also said he was not optimistic the measure would survive a council vote. “We get a lot of lip service, but we don’t get a lot of support,” he said.

The most recent setback to raising money for more officers came in November, when voters in Los Angeles County rejected a similar half-penny sales tax measure that would have benefited the LAPD.

The measure needed the approval of two-thirds of voters to pass. Countywide it received 59.6% of the vote, but fared better in the city, where 63.7% approved. Still, it reached the two-thirds threshold in just seven of Los Angeles’ 15 council districts.

Those numbers have left the council to ponder whether it should send the issue back to voters -- it was virtually unopposed last time and still lost -- and what would happen if it was again defeated.

“I think there are some council members that are concerned that if we put another initiative out there and it fails again, that we as elected officials might in some way look bad because we can’t get these things accomplished,” said Councilman Martin Ludlow.

The other concern of many council members is that, as Reyes said, the measure’s chances could be hurt by the ongoing debate over its merits in the mayoral campaign.

Mayor James K. Hahn has been the primary supporter of the increase. But his four opponents don’t back the measure, including two members of the council -- Bernard C. Parks and Antonio Villaraigosa, who have their own plans to add more police. The council opposition is led by Greig Smith, whose district includes the southwestern San Fernando Valley. Smith has floated a plan that would use about $62.5 million that the city is owed by the state -- to make up for the loss of vehicle registration fees -- to initially hire about 300 officers.

Then, Smith would like to see another countywide sales tax measure put on the ballot in June 2006, when he believes it has a better shot at succeeding. If that flopped, then Smith said it would be time to start carving money from the existing city budget.

Raising the sales tax now is “the wrong policy at the wrong time for Los Angeles,” Smith said. “We’ve been trying to tell business around the country that we’re business-friendly, we just went through a seven-year business tax reform, and now we’re turning around and throwing a tax on business.”

Smith’s plan is popular with some council members and is endorsed by City Administrative Officer Bill Fujioka. But it is one-time money and wouldn’t get Bratton the 1,200 officers he wants.

The $200 million raised by a new sales tax would also be used for dozens of full-time paramedics at city fire stations and a desperately needed new fire dispatch system.

Some business interests have already raised the specter of hordes of consumers fleeing the city to save money when purchasing big-ticket items. (Cars are taxed based on where the buyer lives, not where the vehicle is purchased.)

“I think that everyone here agrees that public safety is an important issue, but we only have a certain amount of dollars for the city budget,” said Mel Kohn, a vice chairman on the tax committee for the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. “If government wants to make public safety a priority, they need to prioritize what they do with their budget.”

But some businessmen remain on the fence. The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, for example, has not yet reached a decision on the sales tax.

The most prominent businessman to support the measure is Rick Caruso, a real estate developer and police commissioner, who believes a safer Los Angeles will be one where commerce thrives. To prove his point that a sales tax is winnable, Caruso commissioned a poll that showed that a citywide sales tax measure could win if it were preceded by a well-crafted campaign.

Nor was Caruso shy about distributing the results to the council last week. It got their attention.

“He has more than put his money where his mouth is, and I think that’s impressive,” said Councilman Jack Weiss, who said he had deep concerns about the sales tax proposal.

Perhaps the most vexing question for council members who are opposed or undecided to raising the sales tax is whether to let voters have the final say. “Some of the council members who are hesitant should put it on the ballot, and if they don’t want to campaign for it they can be silent, they have that right,” said Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who supports the increase. “But at least put it on the ballot. That’s democracy, that’s letting the people decide.”

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Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.