LA sales tax hike will cost working families and you wont believe how much

A typical LA family will have to pay $200 per year, or more, to LA County in additional taxes this year — thanks to the new sales tax hike that went into effect Oct.1.How’s that for “affordability“?In June, the voters of Los Angeles County approved Measure ER, to raise the county sales tax by 0.5%.

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The supporters of tax increases always say there is either some crisis being addressed, or some great humanitarian cause being confronted.They never are forthright about the amount that will be raised or what the cost is to the average taxpayer.In this case, the cause was the supposed “massive” cuts in Medi-Cal funding coming from the federal government.

Those assertions came before there were significant efforts to uncover fraud in the program.  Since that time, extensive fraud has been discovered in pharmacy billing, hospice billing, and other provider charges. The measure was formally put on the ballot by the county’s Board of Supervisors.  In reality, the sponsors were a laundry list of organizations that would be benefiting from these funds as described in the measure.  The funds are not going to be segregated for health care, as described in the ballot measure. The monies go into the county general fund. That means they are in a slush fund, where by definition they can be used for whatever purpose the supervisors deem fit.  And if the federal funding is not cut to the level that the supporters of Measure ER told the voters it would be, the new sales tax receipts can be spent on anything.While the Democrats are making the cost of living the focus of their 2026 campaign, this new tax certainly does not make things more affordable for the taxpayers.  The LA area is frequently ranked as the No.

1 worst area fo...