Letters to the Editor: L.A. County voters made a big mistake passing Measure A. Last year during the primary election, Measure A (Proposition 26) was approved by 2,051,074 votes. There was no way of knowing it when the final votes were counted until the results were posted in late April or early May. However since the election was held so late, the new totals could not be posted for 48 hours prior to the Tuesday, May 20 meeting.
Measure A was a tax increase that added 3.4 cents to the water and electric bill. (The last increase was 1 cent for the water and electric bill in April, 1996.) The ballot measure raised the total sales tax rate and local general excise tax rate to 4.5% and 30 cents, respectively. The tax will raise approximately $1.05 billion.
The tax increase took effect on July 1, 1997, two days after the city of Santa Monica raised the sales tax rate to 5%.
The money raised was distributed to schools. The average percentage increase for each school district will be about 4.5%. However, this increase is based on the following: Los Angeles County has 16 school districts.
Approximately $6.2 billion was spent by education agencies for the school year 1997-98. Of that amount, about $2.3 billion was spent by the Los Angeles County Department of Finance and the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Of the $6.2 billion, about $1.3 billion was spent on the Los Angeles Unified School District. Of the $1.3 billion, $1.09 billion was spent by the Los Angeles County Department of Finance. The Los Angeles County Department of Finance expects an increase in property tax revenue of approximately $1.1 billion because of Measure A.
On July 1, 1997, a third of the county’s school districts were affected by Measure A. The percentage of schools with Measure A increases ranged from 4.5% to 50%. The increase is greatest at the middle school level. Those areas with the greatest increases are located in Compton, East Los Angeles, and North Long Beach.
The increase in a school’s property tax rate will generally be about 7.5% when local sales taxes are factored into the total rate but the increase can be as high as 20