D.C. is not responsible for Los Angeles County’s financial woes, but that is what the Board of Supervisors wants residents to believe as they seek another increase to the sales tax.
The supervisors voted 4 to 1 this week to advance what they’re calling a “temporary” sales tax hike, setting up a referendum for the county’s 6.7 million eligible voters in June. The politicians insist they need more money because of tweaks to Medicaid eligibility made last summer as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Yet L.A. County already has a base sales tax of 9.75 percent after a 2024 referendum raised it a quarter point. The next increase would push it to above 10 percent and raise an estimated $1 billion a year. Don’t expect services to improve as the budget gets even bigger. Instead, a 10.25 percent sales tax would make life even less affordable in America’s most populous county.
L.A. County was buckling under a huge deficit long before the federal tax bill passed. Last March, the county faced an estimated $1 billion shortfall for the 2025-26 fiscal year. The mismanaged wildfires also reduced the tax base as even more Californians fled. Despite those considerable challenges, the board still decided to increase salaries for public employees last summer at a projected cost of $2 billion over three years.
County leaders say 70 percent of funding for their Department of Health Services comes from the federal government. They say they’ll need to close hospitals and clinics if the tax hike does not pass. But California’s inability to sustain its own social welfare system underscores how much belt tightening is necessary. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed legislation that has made about 700,000 illegal immigrants eligible to receive comprehensive coverage since 2024 under the state’s version of Medicaid.
While L.A. County moved to raise the sales tax, the Los Angeles City Council separately voted this week to place its own tax hikes on the June 2 primary ballot. The city wants to enact a new tax on unlicensed cannabis businesses and raise the hotel tax from 14 percent to 16 percent. The explicit goal is to soak visitors who plan to visit the area for the 2026 World Cup, the 2027 Super Bowl and the 2028 Olympics.
All this nickel-and-diming keeps adding up to make the City of Angels, despite its natural beauty, a less attractive place to visit, live and do business.
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