More than 30 cities and districts in Los Angeles and Orange counties are asking voters on Election Day, Nov. 3, to approve new or higher taxes, putting Proposition 43 into a ballot season shaped by strained local budgets and rising costs. The measures span sales taxes, hotel taxes, business taxes, parcel taxes and utility taxes, and some would extend taxes already in place while others would create new ones.
The biggest question for many residents is why so many local governments are reaching for the ballot now. The answer lies in a revenue system that has been tight for decades. Proposition 13 capped property taxes in 1978, and before that, cities and counties relied on property taxes for nearly all of their revenue. Hotel and utility taxes were almost nonexistent before the mid-1970s, which helps explain why local governments now keep returning to less familiar taxes when regular revenue does not keep pace with spending.
South Gate offers the clearest example of how that pressure is landing on households. The city is asking voters to approve Measure SG, an 8% utility users tax that would be added to bills for electricity, water, natural gas, cable and phone service. If approved, it would bring in an estimated $10.4 million per year for a city facing a potential fiscal emergency and a $9.4 million budget deficit.
That shortfall has already forced cuts. Earlier this year, South Gate began reducing services, including eliminating its crossing guard program and assigning fewer police officers per shift. At a City Council meeting earlier this year, several residents spoke against the measure, arguing that the city should not push the cost onto households already dealing with higher utilities and living expenses. One resident, a homeowner for 13 years, said she had seen her utilities, insurance and other costs rise and believed there had to be another way to solve the problem without the UUT measure.
The fight over Measure SG captures the larger debate running through Southern California this fall: whether voters will accept higher local taxes to preserve services that city budgets can no longer fully support. Kirk Stark said local governments trying to meet demand for public spending have had to turn to other, less conventional sources of revenue, and that is exactly what the ballot measures on Nov. 3 represent. What remains unresolved is how many of the more than 30 proposals voters will actually approve, but the voting on Election Day will show how much room local governments still have to ask households to pay more.
