Your guide to L.A. County’s proposed healthcare sales tax

L.A. County voters will be asked this June if they want to pay a little more at the register to shore up the region’s public health system.

Faced with dramatic federal funding cuts, the county supervisors are putting a half-cent sales tax on the ballot. The money — a half-penny of every dollar spent in the county — would go to prop up local hospitals and clinics.

Health officials say they expect the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Trump signed into law last July, to slash more than $2 billion from the county’s budget for health services over the next three years. Many Californians are losing their Medi-Cal because of it, which means the county no longer will be reimbursed for their care.

Officials are hoping voters will help bring new tax money into the system. The sales tax, which needs a simple majority to pass, would take effect Oct. 1 and last five years.

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A coalition of healthcare workers and advocates called Restore Healthcare for Angelenos drove the effort, warning that without the funding, mass layoffs and emergency room closures could be on the horizon.

“It became clear that we were going to wind up in a healthcare crisis,” said Jim Mangia, chief executive of St. John’s Community Health, who is helping lead the effort.

The county supervisors are mostly in favor, voting 4-1 this February to put the tax on the ballot.

Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who introduced the proposal, said she was determined to avoid the mistakes made in 2007 when the county closed Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center — a blow that left South L.A. residents scrambling to reach overwhelmed emergency rooms.

The impact already has been felt, public health officials warn. The Department of Public Health recently closed seven clinics.

Supervisor Kathryn Barger was the only supervisor against it. She pointed to the fact that the tax was a “general” tax, meaning the money won’t be earmarked for healthcare costs. That means politicians have final say over how the money gets spent rather than voters, she said.

Some cities within L.A. County say they’re also rattled over the tax, unleashing a stream of opposition letters against the tax. The California Contract Cities Assn. argues a sales tax hike would “disproportionately burden the very residents the County seeks to protect.” Shoppers near the county line, they warn, likely would start crossing it to shop.

Some of these cities say they have the trust issues when it comes to county ballot measures. When voters approved Measure B in 2002 to fund the county’s trauma center network, an audit years later found the county couldn’t account for whether the money actually had been spent on emergency medical services. And some cities feel they never got their fair share of funds from Measure H, the homelessness services tax measure passed in 2017.

Officials say it would pull in $1 billion annually to help plug the budget holes hitting local hospitals and clinics.

Supervisors have mapped out a spending plan for the money, with the biggest slice to be set aside for covering the costs of uninsured residents. The measure also would ask voters to sign off on a nine-member oversight committee to make sure the money goes where voters want it to go.

It’s been tried before. Santa Clara County voters approved a similar sales tax last November to raise money for the public health system.

Depends what city you’re in. Los Angeles County has a sales tax of 9.75%, and cities add their own sales tax on top. You can see how much your sales tax would be here (add .5 to whatever the current sales tax is in your area).

Some cities would have a sales tax of more than 11%. Notably, Palmdale and Lancaster, some of the county’s poorest areas, could have its highest sales tax.