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BoiFromTroy weighs in disapprovingly on a county ballot measure to levy the sales tax in an effort to raise funds for the Sheriff's Department and municipal governments.
The Boi approvingly cites a Daily News editorial that complains about County staff perks in relation to this issue - as if free downtown parking consists of anything more than a drop in the bucket when it comes to what it takes to police Los Angeles County.
Republicans are happy to take a shot at allegedly "overprivileged" government staffers when it allows them to avoid the real issue - taxes. Why tackle an important issue of governance, when you can take a shot at public servants who are often woefully underpaid?
Since Proposition 13 ratified our state's unreasonable ("girlie," perhaps?) attitude toward taxes in 1978, California's governments have been starved of the resources they need to provide first-rate services. As the Sheriff's Department has become increasingly underfunded, the county is asking us to resort to a regressive sales tax. This tax will affect the poor more than the rich, as the poor tend to spend a greater portion of their income on purchases that are subject to a sales tax.
If Los Angeles wants the services of a great city, it will have to pay for them. The NYPD consists of over 39,000 officers while the LAPD fields just over 9,000. Is this issue going to take more than a hawkish attitude toward parking vouchers? You be the judge.
