A half-percent raise of Los Angeles City\u2019s sales tax would fund new stations, a refreshed reserve fleet and a significant increase in the department\u2019s total firefighters and paramedics<\/p>\n
For the second time in a year, Angelenos will have the choice to raise their own taxes. This time, it\u2019s to fight fire.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles City\u2019s November ballot will include a measure to increase the sales tax by a half-percent to fund an expansion of the fire department. The City Council unanimously approved the measure Tuesday with a 14-0 vote; District 11\u2019s Councilmember Traci Park was absent.<\/p>\n
For Angelenos, sales taxes currently sit at 9.75%, though this number will grow to 10.25% starting Oct. 1 for goods excluding groceries and medications after Measure ER passed this last election<\/a>. The Tuesday measure\u2019s proposed extra hike would put L.A. City\u2019s tax rate on par with multiple cities in the county, among them Santa Monica, Compton and Azusa, at 10.75%.<\/p>\n The measure was brought forth by members of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, IAFF Local 112, the city\u2019s labor union for firefighters and paramedics. It\u2019s necessary, they say, because the department is a fraction of the size it should be to properly care for L.A.\u2019s firefighting needs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re answering five times the calls that we had in the 1960s with the same number of firefighters, and fewer stations,\u201d said Ryan Quigley, UFLAC\u2019s secretary<\/p>\n The proposed tax would generate $345 million that would fund more stations, a refresh of a reserve fleet \u201cmore than 95% out of service,\u201d and nearly double the department\u2019s firefighters and paramedics. It\u2019s also built to guarantee funds go to the right place.<\/p>\n \u201cThis ballot measure will save lives, period,\u201d said UFLAC President Doug Coates. \u201cIt\u2019s accountable, all new revenue must be spent on core LAFD services and existing levels of the LAFD funding that must be protected. It creates an independent citizen oversight committee and requires annual public audits.\u201d<\/p>\n While Boyle Heights\u2019s massive warehouse fire<\/a> seems to finally be near extinguishing, neighborhoods across the city continue to reel from its effects. According to District 1 Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, this measure on the November ballot is an opportunity to prevent crises as dire as this one, as well as the historic Palisades and Eaton fires and their ongoing effects<\/a>.<\/p>\n Scroll to continue reading<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a responsibility to be honest about the conversation that it will take to protect our communities,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cThis measure gives the voters a chance to weigh in on that question directly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A half-percent raise of Los Angeles City\u2019s sales tax would fund new stations, a refreshed reserve fleet and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[22336,4300,45533,14564,48,52,51,8440,47,50,49,132813,1839,15919,69215,151357],"class_list":["post-373358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-boyle-heights","tag-eaton-fire","tag-eunisses-hernandez","tag-l-a-city-council","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lafd","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-measure-er","tag-palisades-fire","tag-sales-tax","tag-uflac","tag-united-firefighters-of-los-angeles-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}