The sneaky new tax sucking even more money from Californians depleted wallets

LA County’s new sales tax hit cash registers Thursday, tacking an extra half a cent onto every dollar Angelenos spend, after a ”deceitful” $10 million union campaign to sneak it past voters.The countywide rate jumped from 9.75% to 10.25%, with even higher rates in cities like West Hollywood and Santa Monica.That’s 50 cents more on every $100 spent and $5 more on every $1,000 – so a family that spends $100,000 a year will fork out an extra $500.Drive a $40,000 car off the lot, and the county pockets another $200.The tax, which was billed Measure ER when it was placed on the ballot in, saw county leaders promise the money would keep hospitals and clinics “open after Washington slashed health care funding.”The Democrat-controlled LA County Board of Supervisors, the five-member body that runs county government, put the measure on the ballot.

Each supervisor, who taxpayers pay $244,727 a year, voted to send the tax to voters, besides lone lone Republican dissenter, Kathryn Barger.Measure ER squeaked through in June, 50.64% to 49.36% — just 25,800 votes separating the 1,013,747 who backed the measure from the 987,977 who opposed it.LA County is home to 9.6 million people, giving the power to approve the measure to about only 10% of the population.The tax will suck roughly $1 billion a year out of shoppers’ pockets and about $5 billion before the measure finally expires in 2031.Adan Chao, the chairman of the Los Angeles Taxpayers’ Association, said Angelenos voted for Measure ER because of a glossy, deceptive $10million special-interest campaign spearheaded by the SEIU.”They deceived the community into thinking this was a medically-focussed measure that was all about beating Trump, when in fact it was a new tax that will never go away and will cost families from the low hundreds to $1,000 a year,” he told the California Post.”“It’s not a restrictive short-term health tax with a sunset clause; it’s a broad, general forever tax,” he added....