A campaign flyer landing in mailboxes across Los Angeles County promotes a ballot measure that would call for “a new approach to expanding programs proven to prevent homelessness and increase housing affordability.”
The measure, which will appear on the November ballot, would “repeal the current approach,” he says.
What it doesn't say is that the measure is a tax and would double the quarter-cent sales tax that funds the current approach.
Measure A, which requires a simple majority for passage, would repeal the quarter-cent sales tax that voters approved in 2017, two years before its mandatory expiration in 2027, and replace it with a half-cent sales tax that would remain in effect indefinitely unless voters repeal it.
A flyer promotes Measure A, a tax increase estimated to raise more than $1 billion a year for homeless programs and services.
(Los Angeles Times)
The tax is estimated to raise more than $1 billion a year and would fund homeless programs including mental health care, affordable housing, rental subsidies and services.
Sixty percent of the money would go to the county for homeless services and prevention, including subsidized housing and shelters, mental health care, case management, employment services and acquisition of existing homes.
Another 35.75% would go to the newly formed Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency for new housing construction, affordable housing preservation and tenant protection.
The pamphlet notes that Los Angeles County officials estimate that homelessness would increase by at least 25% if the previous tax expired without a replacement. Still, it says, the previous measure “underfunds both homelessness prevention and affordable housing, key lessons learned that are reflected in Measure A.”
“As long as the proper disclosures are included identifying who is behind the mailer, there is no obligation to provide all the relevant information,” said Sean McMorris, program manager for transparency, ethics and accountability at the watchdog group California Common Cause. However, that is a requirement for the description included on sample ballots mailed to all voters.
“That’s a typical political strategy: avoid the negatives and focus on the positives or talking points that will be more appealing or less controversial to the public,” McMorris said. “If that means not mentioning that it’s a real tax, then voters have to do their own research or read the ballot description, or be told by the press.”
The flyer states it was sponsored by United Way of Greater Los Angeles, Habitat for Humanity Greater Los Angeles and PATH, or People Assisting the Homeless.
Tommy Newman, vice president of public affairs and activation for United Way, said the groups sent it independently of the Measure A campaign.
“This is not a campaign mailer,” Newman said. “It’s not saying you have to vote yes. It’s giving facts about the measure. There’s only so much space in these mailers and they’re trying to tell the story about what the measure will do.”
Newman said it is one of several mailings that will be sent out as the campaign prepares and others will include information about the source of taxes.
The brochure, which was sent to one million households, includes a link to a website created by United Way that offers more details, including a cost analysis. It estimates that the sales tax would cost $5 a month for an average household and $13 a month for a high-income household. It gives an example of the additional cost of 25 cents for a $100 tennis racket or necklace.
If adopted, Measure A would add a quarter-cent to the sales tax in most cities and unincorporated areas. But in six cities the tax will increase by a half-cent because their sales tax rates were at their maximum when the previous measure took effect. A recent change in state law has allowed their rates to increase.
The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which wrote the opposition statement that will appear on the ballot, views the measure as a special-interest tax placed on the ballot by groups that stand to benefit from it, said Susan Shelley, vice president of communications.
The measure, which qualified for the ballot through a signature drive, requires only a simple majority for passage under court rulings that hold that the voter-approved requirement of a two-thirds majority for government-imposed tax increases does not apply to citizen initiatives.
“To raise the sales tax, to take the temporary tax and make it permanent and to do it with a citizen initiative, we think that is outrageous,” Shelly said.
The Jarvis association has not decided how much it will spend on an opposition campaign, Shelly said.
Newman said the campaign is focused on Measure A's main new elements — increased funding for housing, homelessness prevention and accountability — rather than cost.
“In the research that the campaign has done, voters’ top concerns are not the sales tax increase,” Newman said. “The top concerns are how this money will be spent, how it’s different than what we were doing before, and what the results will be.”
The measure requires oversight by a new board called the Leadership Table, made up of city and county officials and community representatives. Before the election, the group will draft specific metrics for each of five goals: increasing the number of people moving out of encampments, reducing the number of homeless people with mental illness and/or substance use disorders, increasing the number of people leaving homelessness permanently, preventing people from becoming homeless and increasing the number of affordable housing units.
Funds would be diverted from programs that fail to achieve those goals.
Campaign finance records filed with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder show that two committees behind the measure have raised just under $4 million, with United Way contributing $1.58 million.
