Tax-fatigue hits LA, too; new homelessness tax gets lukewarm reception
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A measure on the November ballot that would double LA County's quarter-cent homeless sales tax does not yet have enough support to pass. Doug Smith reports for the LA Times.
Forty-seven percent of likely voters surveyed said they would vote for the new half-cent tax if the election were held immediately, a margin that falls three percentage points short of the majority needed to pass. Thirty-six percent said they would vote no, and 17% were undecided.
That tepid support was reflected in voters’ view of progress made with hundreds of millions of dollars raised under the current tax, called Measure H, that was approved by more than two-thirds of voters in 2017. Fifty-one percent said they were very dissatisfied with the results and 6% somewhat dissatisfied.
Despite spending by the county Homelessness Initiative that reached more than $600 million in the 2023-2024 budget, homelessness climbed steadily for five years before leveling off this year.
Read the whole thing here.
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