League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	Los Angeles County, CA March 5, 2013 Election
	Proposition LA-A Neighborhood Public Safety and City Services Funding and Accountability Measure City of Los Angeles General Tax Measure - Majority Approval Required UNOFFICIAL results as of March 6, 2:00 p.m. Fail: 117820 / 44.8% Yes votes ...... 145049 / 55.2% No votes See Also: Index of all Measures

Arguments For Proposition LA-A

Arguments Against Proposition LA-A

Vote Yes on Proposition A: the Safe Neighborhoods and Vital City Services Protection Measure. Over the last five years, Sacramento has taken over one billion dollars from the City of Los Angeles money that goes toward vital City services, including fire, police and 911 emergency services. In addition, money has been taken that would maintain youth gang prevention and after school programs, graffiti removal and fix potholes and sidewalks. Despite a significant reduction in the City's workforce and reforming the pension system, Los Angeles faces a budget deficit of more than $200 million that further threatens our most essential services. Additional cuts to fire, police and paramedic services are not an option if we want to maintain the current level of protection for our neighborhoods and families. Proposition A will help restore a severely understaffed fire department, help maintain police, and paramedic staffing levels and ensure fast and effective 911 response services to make sure residents receive quality emergency medical care and get to a hospital quickly. Without Proposition A's additional revenue, a minimum of 500 police officers that patrol our neighborhoods will be laid off and our historically low crime rates may be in danger. Proposition A also ensures that everyone pays their fair share, including businesses and the millions of tourists and people from nearby cities who visit Los Angeles every year to shop, eat and attend events. Proposition A will cost the average Los Angeles resident less than 10 cents a day, and by law the tax cannot be applied to food and medicine. Proposition A requires annual independent audits, public review of expenditures and most importantly, these funds cannot be taken away by the state and will only be used to maintain vital City of Los Angeles services. We urge you to protect our firefighters, police officers, paramedics and vital City services -Vote YES on Proposition A. Charlie Beck Chief of Police Marķa Elena Durazo Executive Secretary-Treasurer L.A. County Federation of Labor Bill Rosendahl Los Angeles City Councilmember Richard H. Close Sherman Oaks Homeowners' Association Frank Lima President, United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Brian Cummings Fire Chief Rick Tuttle Los Angeles City Councilmember (Ret.) Joe Buscaino Los Angeles City Councilmember Andre Quintero Los Angeles Neighborhood Prosecutor Rebuttal to Arguments For Do you trust City Hall with your money? That's the question you must ask yourself when deciding bow to vote on the regressive $200 million sales tax increase sought by city officials. Raising our sales tax{ to a crippling 9.5% will drive businesses, jobs, and consumers out of Los Angeles. It's nothing but a temporary bailout to cover up City Hall's failure to deal with soaring payroll costs - another $750 million over the next four years! Remember when they tripled our trash fee to keep 10,000 cops on the street? Where did all that money go? Now they are threatening to fire 500 officers if we don't approve this raid on our wallets. Los Angeles is heading over a fiscal cliff because the City Council failed to deal with the $11.5 billion pension liability and the looming $1.1 billion budget deficit. Don't reward bad behavior. Enough is enough. NO on A! Jack Humphreville Director / EVP http://WWW.RECYClER.COM / Recycler Classifieds David W. Fleming Valley Civic Leader Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D. Boardmember, Mar Vista Community Council James O'Sullivan President, Miracle Mile Residential Assocation Richard J. Riordan Former Mayor City of Los Angeles Glenn Burley Neighborhood Council Board Member Mark Seigel President, Sunland-Tujunga Neighborhood Council Dominick W. Rubelcava Attorney at Law

DEMAND REAL BUDGET REFORM. VOTE NO ON THE REGRESSIVE SALES TAX City Hall has failed year after year to control runaway spending. Now it wants us to cover up its addiction with a permanent half cent increase in our sales tax, jacking it up to a crippling 9.5%, one of the highest in the nation. This sales tax. hike is bad for LA, bad for hard working Angelenos, bad for job-creating businesses, and bad for the City's reputation. It's a regressive tax that will have a disproportionate impact on working and middle class Angelenos, and encourage consumers to shop in nearby lower taxed cities. Worst of all, it doesn't solve the budget crisis, and will make finding real solutions so much more difficult in the future while delaying desperately needed repairs to our streets, sidewalks, and other infrastructure. For example, the $215 million in new revenue will not even cover next year's $300 million increase in labor costs or the $768 million escalation over the next four years. Our elected officials continue to mislead us about the City's finances. The steps they have taken in four years of economic challenge have been grossly inadequate. Paying off workers to retire early added to the massive unfunded pension liability. Transferring workers to the DWP contributed to soaring water and power rates. Increased employee pension contributions are dwarfed by the salary increases of 25% since 2005. The Mayor's pension "reform" plan saves only about 1% of the $1.3 billion of the city's pension contribution in 2017. And the City Council contemptuously ignored Mayor Riordan's call for real pension reform. It's time for City Hall to stop "kicking the can down the road" to insolvency. It's time for real REFORM. Don't reward bad behavior. Vote NO on Proposition A. Jack Humphreville Director / EVP http://WWW.RECYClER.COM / Recycler Classifieds Richard J. Riordan Former Mayor City of Los Angeles Bernard Parks Council Member City of Los Angeles Cary Brazeman Candidate for City Controller City of Los Angeles Stuart Waldman President Valley Industry & Commerce Association Jan Perry Council Member City of Los Angeles Kevin James Candidate for Mayor City of Los Angeles Patricia Donaldson Chair South Bay Association of Chambers of Commerce Ron Kaye RonKayLA.com Writer Rebuttal to Arguments Against Proposition A opponents want los Angeles to go over a fiscal cliff, causing: Longer response times for 911 calls; Higher crime rates with over 500 fewer police on patrol; More potholes and broken sidewalks; Cancelled afterschool programs. Many of these opponents supported the programs that caused this crisis. Now they won't take responsibility for their own record. Instead, they are attempting to cut vital public safety services to fix their mistakes. Sales tax is the only tax paid by businesses, tourists, residents, citizens and non-citizens. There are no loopholes. Proposition A will cost the average Los Angeles resident about $30 dollars per YEAR, less than a dime a day. State law prohibits this tax from applying to medicine, food and gasoline. Los Angeles has also taken the first steps to fixing our budget - cutting 5,000 positions, reversing previous pension giveaways and for the first time approving real pension reform. Vote YES on Proposition A. Charlie Beck Chief of Police Marķa Elena Durazo Executive Secretary-Treasurer L.A. County Federation of Labor ... Bill Rosendahl Los Angeles City Councilmember Andre Quintero Los Angeles Neighborhood Prosecutor Brian Cummings Fire Chief Richard H. Close Sherman Oaks Homeowners' Association Frank Lima President, United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Joe Buscaino Los Angeles City Councilmember