Sales Tax Hike to Add Law Officers Comes Up Short

A ballot measure to raise the sales tax in Los Angeles County to put 5,000 more police officers and sheriff’s deputies on the streets fell short Tuesday of the two-thirds majority it needed to pass.

The county’s top law enforcement officers, Sheriff Lee Baca and LAPD Chief William J. Bratton, acknowledged late Tuesday night that Measure A appeared headed for defeat.

“I’m sad for the people and I’m sad for the men and women who work in law enforcement,” Baca said. “We haven’t fixed anything when it comes to the crime-fighting needs of Los Angeles County.”

Baca and Bratton knew from the beginning of their campaign that they would have a tough fight persuading voters to boost the sales tax from 8.25% to 8.75%.

As the votes were counted, Baca and Bratton, dining together at a French restaurant in Echo Park, had already begun to discuss other ways to raise money for law enforcement.

Although county voters rejected the sales tax, those in the city of Los Angeles were approving Proposition O, a $500-million bond issue to keep trash and bacteria in the city’s storm-water system from polluting the Pacific Ocean.

The bond measure, which also required a two-thirds vote, appeared headed toward a comfortable victory.

“This represents a real turning point for environmental issues on a local level,” said Councilman Eric Garcetti, who has spearheaded the campaign. “I think this is an issue that cuts across political, partisan and geographical lines.”

In their campaign for the sales tax increase, Baca and Bratton sought to persuade voters that, although the crime rate had fallen sharply from its peak in 1991, there was still too much crime in Los Angeles County and still too few police officers to combat it.

They boldly promised to cut crime in half if Measure A passed.

“Measure A is a measured response to the issue of crime,” Bratton had said on the campaign trail. “It’s not a panacea, but it is the beginning of a significant reduction in the crime.”

Los Angeles has long been one of the most under-policed major U.S. cities, with 9,099 officers to serve 3.8 million residents. The ratio of officers to residents is much greater in most other cities, including New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. Chicago, for example, has 13,500 officers for 2.9 million residents.

Baca and Bratton had raised more than $2.8 million for the campaign, with major contributions coming from the union that represents Los Angeles police officers, companies that contract with the sheriff’s or police departments and wealthy local businessmen.

To reach voters, they relied on speeches, media interviews and a television ad that played to the public’s fear of crime.

The dramatic 30-second commercial, which began running in early October, featured an intruder breaking into a suburban home. A desperate woman calls 911 and pleads for police to come quickly as the intruder climbs the stairs and heads toward her.

The campaign for Proposition O, the storm-water bond measure for the city of Los Angeles, was low-key by comparison.

The bond proposal faced no organized opposition, but with it appearing last on a crowded ballot, backers spent more than $481,000 on television ads to reach voters.

The bond issue, estimated to cost the owner of a $350,000 home about $56 a year, was seen as the most ambitious effort in the region to clean up the storm runoff that floods the coastline with everything from Styrofoam to bacteria that can sicken swimmers.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously this summer to put Proposition O on the ballot. Every elected city official backed the measure.

“They are turning over a new leaf in how they deal with this problem,” said Mark Gold, executive director of Heal the Bay, an environmental organization based in Santa Monica.

City officials proposed to use the $500 million from the bond sale to install grates and catch basins to keep pollutants from reaching rivers and streams and eventually the ocean.

The campaign for Measure A began two years ago, when Baca first proposed the idea.

In January, Baca launched an initiative drive to raise the sales tax but failed to collect enough signatures to make the ballot.

When the Los Angeles City Council began moving to put its own sales tax proposal before voters, a majority of the five supervisors -- led by Zev Yaroslavsky -- had a change of heart.

On the campaign trail, the county’s top law enforcement officers insisted the sales tax increase was an investment, not a cost.

“How much is too much to pay for security, for safety, and for peace of mind?” Baca asked.

There was no organized campaign against the measure. Instead of putting a tax increase on the ballot, Supervisor Mike Antonovich said supervisors should make public safety their highest budget priority.

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. complained that higher taxes would wind up as pay raises and pensions for officers.

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Times staff writer Sue Fox contributed to this report.