L.A. sales taxes will go up, but the time it takes firefighters to respond may go down

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Set us as preferred Los Angeles is going to get more expensive next year thanks to a half-cent sales tax hike approved by voters last week, but city officials say the benefit will be a stronger fire department and faster response times.Measure FD will generate about $345 million annually for the city Fire Department by raising the city’s retail sales tax from 10.25% to 10.75%, which is about 5 cents more for every $10 spent.

That means filling up the gas tank, eating out and shopping for clothes will all get more expensive — to the tune of roughly $86 per person on average, according to the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., which opposed the measure.The ordinance requires a 110-day waiting period after the votes are certified on Nov.

27, and won’t kick in until the first day of the next calendar quarter, so the earliest people could see the increase would be April 1.The sales tax hike was spearheaded by the city’s firefighters union and Councilmember Traci Park, whose district includes the Pacific Palisades community devastated by fire in January 2025.The measure passed by roughly a 54% to 46% margin, according to the latest tally, although some mail-in ballots are still being counted.L.A.

firefighters had warned their department was in crisis long before the Palisades fire and the Eaton fire in Altadena cast a brighter light on the issue, Park said.“These matters were urgent before, but the Palisades fire laid bare how urgent it was that this investment be made,” Park said.

“The reality that it was not going to be solved inside the four walls of the city budget or by politicians inside City Hall.”The sales tax is an unprecedented move by the city, and vital for the department to hire more personnel, open more stations and lower the department’s response times, said Doug Coates, the fire union president.The F...