Measure FD<\/a>, which if approved by voters would direct hundreds of millions dollars annually to the Fire Department to build new stations, hire new firefighters and upgrade equipment. <\/p>\nMeasure FD was pushed by the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112, the union representing rank-and-file firefighters. The union says the measure is essential to modernizing the city\u2019s Fire Department to make sure Angelenos are safe.<\/p>\n
But the PPL is mounting a last-minute campaign to squash the tax.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur issue is that this is a permanent tax \u2014 a forever tax,\u201d said Rick Mendoza, the president of the Police Protective League, in an interview. \u201cWe\u2019re 100% for hiring firefighters and prioritizing public safety. This is not shot at the firefighters. It\u2019s an affordability issue. No one likes the permanence of a tax with no end in sight.\u201d<\/p>\n
The firefighters union president, Doug Coates, said UFLAC respected PPL, but thought opposing Measure FD was a bad idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are choosing to keep the public at risk \u2014 especially in our most vulnerable communities,\u201d Coates said. \u201cMeasure FD is the most important public safety decision this city has faced in a generation. We urge everyone to vote yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The opposition from PPL led UFLAC to call for a special meeting of its membership on Oct. 16, according to an email shared with The Times. The union\u2019s executive board is asking members to authorize an additional $3 million in spending in support of the measure. UFLAC has already spent more than $2 million on the measure.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur internal polling shows that Measure FD is in a good position to get majority support from Los Angeles voters, but opposition from the police officers\u2019 union and potential money spent against our measure requires a strong response from UFLAC,\u201d wrote the executive board of the union in an email Monday to membership that was shared with The Times. <\/p>\n
While Measure FD has drawn headlines, the ballot initiative didn\u2019t immediately draw much opposition after it qualified for the November election. <\/p>\n
Up to this point, the main opponent of the initiative has been the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer\u2019s Assn., a non-profit that advocates for lower taxes. <\/p>\n
The measure needs only a simple majority of voters to support it for it to pass. <\/p>\n
The measure would being the city\u2019s sales tax to 10.75% and will cost an average of $86 per person and $345 for a family of four in additional sales taxes each year, according to the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer\u2019s Assn.<\/p>\n
The Fire Department already has a budget nearing $1 billion and the tax is expected to generate another $345 million annually to the department that has long said it is woefully underfunded.<\/p>\n
If passed, the ballot initiative would require the city to continue funding the department at the same average percentage of the general fund that it was funded in the decade before the initiative was placed on the ballot.<\/p>\n
UFLAC has said that by 2050, the tax would allow the department to build at least 30 new fire stations, buy new fire trucks, and increase the size of the department by about 1,400 people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Police Department\u2019s officer union said Tuesday it will oppose Measure FD, the half-cent sales tax…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7167,1409,19944,11057,4330,190342,48,52,51,190341,47,50,49,63,190340,65582,9300,35977,4190,1747,69215],"class_list":["post-487238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ballot","tag-city","tag-email","tag-fire-department","tag-firefighter","tag-half-cent-sale-tax-hike","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lapd-union","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-measure-fd","tag-membership","tag-opposition","tag-ppl","tag-support","tag-tax","tag-uflac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487238","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=487238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}