The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is set to vote Tuesday on whether to place a proposed countywide half-cent sales tax increase on the June ballot. The motion requires approval from two-thirds of the board to advance. The tax measure would take effect if it ultimately wins a majority of votes from the public, applying to both unincorporated areas and incorporated cities.
The author of the motion, Holly J. Mitchell, says the tax increase is needed to offset federal cuts included in the so-called Big Beautiful Bill (H.R. 1). Signed by President Trump last year, it includes sweeping reductions to federal health and nutrition safety-net programs, including Medicaid (Medi-Cal) and SNAP (CalFresh).
According to a new analysis released by the California State Association of Counties (CSAC), those reductions could end up costing California counties up to $9.5 billion a year.
"After accounting for H.R.1, recent Executive Orders from the Trump Administration on grant oversight, and new federal Terms & Conditions restrictions, the County’s most impacted departments face projected losses totaling $2.4 billion over the next three years," Mitchell's motion states. "Due to funding losses, County officials have already initiated hiring freezes and are contemplating service consolidations, potential layoffs of 5,000 staff, and facility closures in the coming years. Federal funding cuts will affect public health services such as chronic disease prevention, disease tracking and water safety, as well as the health care provided at the County’s public hospitals and numerous clinics. The President’s bill, H.R.1, and other reductions in health and public health funding by the Trump Administration."
The motion is opposed by the California Contract Cities Association (CCCA). The organization’s letter of opposition reads:
We are concerned this measure would disproportionately burden the very residents the County seeks to protect, who are facing historic affordability pressures on housing, food, fuel, utilities, and childcare costs. This half-cent countywide sales tax increase would push the combined sales tax rates in some cities to over 11 percent, further straining household budgets. At the same time, cities are confronting their own structural budget challenges and are deeply worried about how to best address fiscal issues without compounding economic pressure on residents least able to absorb it. This is particularly distressing in the context of LA County seeking a legislative exemption that would allow this sales tax measure to bypass the state cap on local sales taxes. If such legislation passed, struggling cities that are already at or near the cap would be left overlooked with limited future fiscal options to support much-needed local services in their communities.
CCCA also feels there are significant flaws in the sales tax measure’s revenue model as outlined in the motion. First, the motion states that the funds generated by the measure would go into L.A. County's General Fund, which technically classifies the dollars as unrestricted operating funds in future years. CCCA feels strongly that if a measure of this kind is established, it should be structured as a special tax to ensure there are guardrails on the revenue that is going towards protecting residents’ health needs. Voters and taxpayers deserve complete transparency, not creative structuring, when asked to shoulder additional tax burdens. Second, we are concerned about the temporary nature of the measure. While the motion states the measure will only be effective from October 1, 2026, to October 1, 2031, other temporary L.A. County measures have recently been extended (i.e. Measure H evolving into Measure A in 2024). Now residents reasonably question whether temporary taxes are, in practice, permanent. Further, if this general sales tax measure were to be extended, it would have serious, long-term implications on cities’ ability to generate needed revenue.
Read more about the proposed tax increase and H.R. 1’s impacts at Culver City Crossroads.
Update: The L.A. County Board of Supervisors has voted to place the measure on the June ballot.