The sneaky new tax sucking even more money from Californians' depleted wallets

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

54% : "It's not a restrictive short-term health tax with a sunset clause; it's a broad, general forever tax," he added.
54% : The tax revenue flows into the county's general fund, leaving supervisors free to spend it elsewhere.
54% : The California Community Foundation added $200,000, while the county's doctors' group contributed $50,000. Then, a day before the tax took effect, came a new challenge: The Libertarian Party of LA County, which advocates lower taxes and smaller government, sued to overturn it.
53% : " Measure ER has inflated the sales tax in cities like West Hollywood and Pasadena to 11% and Santa Monica to 11.25% as each district already had a sales tax above 9.75%.
52% : For comparison, sales tax is 7% in Miami, 8.25% in Austin and Houston, and just under 9% in New York City.
50% : SEIU Local 721, which represents county workers, kicked in $200,000 and says the tax will protect thousands of members' jobs.
48% : LA County's new sales tax hit cash registers Thursday, tacking an extra half a cent onto every dollar Angelenos spend, after a "deceitful" $10 million union campaign to sneak it past voters.
47% : "They deceived the community into thinking this was a medically-focussed measure that was all about beating Trump, when in fact it was a new tax that will never go away and will cost families from the low hundreds to $1,000 a year," he told the California Post."
46% : Each supervisor, who taxpayers pay $244,727 a year, voted to send the tax to voters, besides lone lone Republican dissenter, Kathryn Barger.
46% : The increase is LA County's second sales tax hike in less than two years.
45% : It's yet another tax on money we've already been taxed on.
44% : "I'd like to know more about where the taxes go.
44% : Voters approved Measure A, a half-cent homelessness tax, in 2024, amid complaints from some smaller cities that they pay far more into the program than they get back.
43% : The tax, which was billed Measure ER when it was placed on the ballot in, saw county leaders promise the money would keep hospitals and clinics "open after Washington slashed health care funding.
43% : Supervisor Kathryn Barger wasn't buying it, warning there was "no certainty that the dollars will be spent as intended" and that residents are "already carrying one of the heaviest tax burdens" of any major region in the country.
43% : Instead, the taxes raised go directly into the County's general fund.
41% : "These taxes are never narrow and short-term, they never go away" "This needs to be a wake up call to Angelenos and Californians that they can't continue to be bribed.
39% : Supervisors Holly Mitchell and Hilda Solis led the push for the tax, with Mitchell calling it a "last resort" as the county had already frozen hiring, cut overtime and dipped into emergency reserves.
33% : The tax will suck roughly $1 billion a year out of shoppers' pockets and about $5 billion before the measure finally expires in 2031.

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