LA taxes look set to rise as votes tallied for Measure FD

Los Angeles voters were leaning toward approving a tax hike that would pump hundreds of millions of dollars into the city’s Fire Department, with a half-cent sales tax increase leading Tuesday night despite a bitter fight over affordability.

Measure FD was ahead with 54% support and 46% opposition in the first batch of election results released at 8:17 p.m. by the Los Angeles County registrar’s office.

The voter-backed initiative needs only a simple majority to pass, rather than the two-thirds threshold required for some tax increases. More ballots, including those cast at vote centers on Election Day, were expected to be counted throughout the night, with the final results not expected until Nov. 27.

If approved, the measure would raise the city’s sales tax from 10.25% to 10.75%, generating an estimated $345 million annually for the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The department now draws most of its funding, a budget of nearly $1 billion, from the city’s general fund, which it shares with most other city departments.

The measure also requires the city to keep funding the department at its average share of the general fund over the decade before the measure qualified for the ballot.

That provision is meant to keep City Hall from using the new money to replace existing funding.

The United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112 put the measure on the ballot. The union represents the city’s rank-and-file firefighters.

It says the money would pay for more firefighters and paramedics, new and modernized stations, new equipment, and expanded brush clearance and wildfire prevention. By 2050, the union says, the tax would fund at least 30 new stations and grow the department by about 1,400 people.

Supporters pointed to the January 2025 Palisades Fire, which destroyed thousands of homes and killed 12 people. LAFD’s own after-action report on the fire found that limited staffing and dozens of aging or broken-down front-line vehicles hampered the response.

“Measure FD is the most important public safety decision this city has faced in a generation,” union President Doug Coates told the Los Angeles Times in October.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents LAPD officers, came out against the measure in early October. The union pledged several million dollars for TV, digital and mail ads.

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Its president, Ricky Mendoza, said the union supports hiring firefighters but objects to a tax with no expiration date, calling it an affordability problem for Angelenos.

The police union’s opposition set off a bitter and expensive clash between two of the city’s most powerful labor groups. The firefighters union had already spent more than $2 million on the campaign, and its board asked members to approve another $3 million.

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association led the opposition before the police union joined in.

The group estimated the tax would cost an average of $86 per person, or $345 for a family of four, each year. It argued the city should find the money within its existing budget.

“The city has a $15 billion budget, and this is a tax that’s intended to raise $345 million, and they can’t find $345 million from cuts and efficiencies and changes in priorities?” Susan Shelley, the group’s vice president of communications, told CBS LA.

Opponents also noted that Measure FD would be the third sales tax increase in Los Angeles in two years.