lbpost.com/news/new-la-county-homelessness-measure-qualifies-for-november-ballot/
Sales tax increase to fund homeless services qualifies for November ballot
PoliticsThe homeless-industrial complex demands more money.
Yea fuck that. We need to see where the money is going otherwise I don’t want to fund shit for the homeless or any other program.
I really hope our city controller, Kenneth Mejia, can figure it out. I think he's called out the mayor's office for how funds are allocated and used in different departments. Corruption is rampant and the people are hurting while higher positioned city workers are getting rich off of it. Things need to change before we approve this bullshit
They took away his workers and are seeking to take away the power of the office. This is what happens when the city is full of corrupt officials getting legal bribes.
Who’s they? I want to chase this a bit.
He's in a very public spat with the Mayor's office and its staff. Currently he's gone to court to demand access to documents he should have full access to, but doesnt do to Bass' stonewalling. Bass claims he shouldnt have access at all.
In general Mejia is kind of an odd duck. Controller isnt really a position where their leader screams on twitter all day about the dangers of the budget, but that didnt stop him. But he's also a CPA, which is apparently rare for LA Controllers, so he understands what money is coming in and what is going out.
I think he realizes that more and more people want to know about local politics and is meeting the LA voters where they are, on social media. I think he probably one of the politicians i most respect because dude just wants to help the city of Los Angeles and its residents.
In general I think its always good to have the guy in charge of counting the money pissed off and vocal about it. My CPA is always yelling at me about my buying behaviors and honestly it works.
Before him, Controller was usually just a stepping stool to higher office within the city, and controllers rarely had backgrounds in money management which is nuts.
I’ve met him a few times at different events. Really nice and really sharp guy. Young too. Heart’s in the right place but hope the corruption in the City doesn’t chew him up and spit him out.
They managed to find a home for that money!
No new funding. They’ve proven themselves to be irresponsible and refuse accountability.
Seriously. I was willing to vote in favor of throwing some money at this huge problem, but seeing how they’ve handled that money leaves me hesitant to give them more.
I want to help homeless people and I don't wanna come across as callous.
But yeah, at this point I am voting "NO" on anything related to bills with homeless. We've given them enough money and it isn't working. Think of something else.
The tax will help fund that and all of the special committees and task forces.
oh, and the graft...lots and lots of graft.
oh get fucked
It’s already at like 10%, all this tax does is hurt the poor and middle class
Arguably, create more homeless? Because the poor will have to shell out more money? Not actually sure, would be interesting to see if there are statistics for that since we already know that people do live paycheck by paycheck. But maybe there are tax benefits the poor gets that offsets this tax increase
And yet they'll still vote for it
No we won't. This shit is not flying anymore.
Then for the love of God, get out the vote against this nonsense.
And you’ll be downvoted for saying that. It’s crazy how people keep voting for the same people while expecting different results…
Exactly the point. No way the rich will help out
You've eloquently and succinctly described my exact feelings on the matter.
For every dollar spent 19 goes into a black hole
No but they are ultra serious this time and totally won’t blow the money with nothing to show for it but worse numbers.
I’ve literally voted yes on every homelessness initiative I’ve seen on a ballot. Not anymore. They’ve been giving billions upon billions of dollars and done so little. We have to show these politicians if they can’t actually make changes we won’t give them money
Yep. I'm done. They have the funds now. The excuses are gone.
Same. They can’t keep getting away with this only to inevitably then spend the money on cops to do jack shit.
Exact same boat. Moved here over a decade ago and have voted for these every time, to see money siphoned off for no tangible impact.
As another poster said, if we're not reopening asylums and involuntary treatment, I'm not interested anymore.
Same. No more.
Biggest winner are those who administer the funds, ie the program director, project coordinator, and all the relatives they hire.
Sadly, I’m in the same boat. They’re not getting to the root of a lot of the issues (mental health, drug rehab, etc) and the bandaids like temporary housing are nowhere near enough. Horrible situation
Me to a T. I used to be so compassionate but after constantly having to replace my possessions due to the homeless stealing them, shitting on them, or destroying them, I’m done. I want them gone.
It's so depressing to say this, but the education is the same. It's the most important thing we can give money to, and the vast majority of what we give gets squandered on useless shit. Such a shamefully small percentage actually goes to teachers. I'm from a family of teachers, and I want to give to education, but I've learned too much about how that money gets "used". Sad sad stuff.
Same. No more tax increase bullshit. I can't believe the idiots who voted for the gas tax as well 🤦
Attempt number bazillion to raise a tax to help with homelessness. Does this mean the other taxes will be repealed?
This repeals the 25 cent tax expiring in 2027 and replaces it with 50 cents - which DOESN'T expire.
That’s a no for me dawg
nah I'm done with this grift. Unless it involves specifically reopening asylums and getting the loons off the street, I'm not interested. Not gonna fund anymore $800k tiny homes that never actually get built.
100%. More housing can solve the problem long term but we have an problem RIGHT NOW of drug addicted or mentally ill homeless that unfortunately are beyond saving and putting them in a 800k tiny home isn’t gonna fix anything. The reality is we need to reopen asylums.
This is my mentality too. Too much talk, not enough action. Pockets are being lined with our tax dollars
For the first time in my 12 years of voting in LA I'll be voting no on this. Rebuild our schools, roads, and infrastructure first. If the previous programs had produced actual results, I'd definitely be up for more.
I've been saying this for a decade. Their are always bills for funds to help the homeless but nothing ever gets done. We are worse off now than we were then.
Preach
Yup, I think we all learned a lesson from measure H in 2016.
Hard agreed.
Sales tax of 10.75% is nuts
So is 10.25 lmao
Nope. They have enough of our money
“We need to fundamentally change how we approach our homelessness and housing crisis... "
And yet they are doing the same thing of increasing taxes.
We already gave them billions and they squandered it and corrupt orgs stole alot of that money. And with all the states shipping their homeless here, this should be federally funded, not squeezed out of us
Nope. I saw how the H and HHH funding was friviously spent. I was expecting dorm style units, not $900k single unit apartments for the homeless. Not giving another dime for homeless services anymore.
Paying tax money to fund $900k apartments for the homeless while unable to buy an apartment in this city. Gotta love this timeline
I’m out. Voted for too many of these things and not much has changed
Oh it’s changed, it’s got worse
Same
I need a detailed plan of how the money is going to be spent or it’s a no from me, dawg.
If the funds would go towards actually solving the problem I’d be totally on board. Having lived in CA for the better part of a decade, I’m confident that that will not be the case.
Our taxes are already way too high across the board. They are massively ineffective with spending.
watch millions allocated towards this magically go missing like we've seen in the past few weeks
After finding out billions that were already set aside, have gone nowhere except the pockets of these drifters. I will happily say go fuck yourselves.
The drifters or the grifters?
Grifters
So I looked up who is pushing this and it seems to be this coalition of organizations:
https://boldnewway.com/coalition/
I looked up one of them that claims to provide services to address homelessness. Then I clicked on the financial transparency link on their site and got to this most recent audit of theirs:
https://www.ascenciaca.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Ascencia-FS-6-30-23-Final.pdf
Do we have accountants that can chime in?
It says out of a total of ~$4.6 million in expenses, over $3 million went to payroll and benefits and about $110 thousand to client services. Does that mean they spend $110k on actually helping the homeless and $3 million on themselves? Again, I’m not an accountant and I’m not accusing, but would love some clarification from someone who can properly read this audit.
Based on my initial review, I don't think that's quite what happened. The "Payroll and benefits" category is broken down into three components: "Program Services," "General and Administrative," and "Fundraising". "Program Services" presumably refers to case workers, e.g., the people working directly with the clients, which is most of what these organizations do. My guess is that the executives are in the General and Administrative category.
The $105,641 "Client expenses" figure is probably the organization directly paying expenses for clients. For example, some of these organizations buy professional clothes for their clients for job interviews.
Yeah, that’s gotta be it. Their tax returns say they have 86 employees. Only one executive seems to have a salary at ~$135k. They have a 45 bed facility, a permanent housing program that currently serves 16 families, another one with social services support that’s serving another 20 households. They also provide intensive case management for 200 clients.
Presumably at least some of that payroll goes toward case workers, security guards, etc. who are useful for running the shelters
Idk how much is admin bloat
Yeah, wish there was a breakdown of that.
Please stop this nonsense
Thats a no for me bob
I have supported my fair share of these measures before with little to no results. That’s a ‘NO’ from me this time.
Yeah, really looking forward to paying even more taxes here with nothing to show for it.
What the fuck y’all cant even use the funds we already contribute well
bro just one more tax bro, i swear we'll fix homelessness this time, just one more tax and it'll fix it bro, i promise bro, just one more tax
Get the fuck outta here: California spent billions on homelessness without tracking if it worked
So how much money is missing or can't account for that was meant for the homeless to begin with
Fuck offfffff with that
This time they’ll really fix homelessness guys! I really believe it! Just trust the nonprofits!
Imagine paying a higher tax just for some “non-profit” CEO from San Marino to fleece us and give us five tiny homes for transplant homeless.
Let Local Government Build And Manage Affordable Housing! Cut out the middleman
So proud of this comment section 🥲
VOTE OUT ANYONE DEFENDING THIS
I keep hearing this reported as a repeal of the quarter cent tax with no mention of it being replaced with a half cent… effectively an increase being sold as a repeal. I can’t be the only one misled by the reporting on this.
So they can build more 600k units while everyone else suffers...
Come on now, the sales tax is already almost 10%. We need better management of the funds we already have. Since the police don't seem to do anything maybe we carve it out of their budget.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD VOTE MY FELLOW ANGELENOS
NO i dont understand why we have to solve this problem, this should be done at the federal level. half of these people are from other states, just come here for the climate. do we have to pay for everything for the homeless that flock here from other states?
They can’t even account for the $24 billion they already spent. Now they want to increase the cost of living for everyone?
That’s going to a be a “fuck right off” from me.
At this point we’d literally be better off shipping them off to some desert city and let the homeless people make a Burning man type settlement, throw a Walmart in there for good measure.
It’ll be cheaper and just as bad of a solution as everything we’ve done. Bonus points because it’ll anger literally everyone just like LA continues to do.
The grift never stops.
I used to be all for these, but we keep enacted higher taxes (which I was all for), and things seem to get worse and worse). More tax revenue isn't going to help if we aren't able to spend it effectively.
“With signatures verified, the issue will now move to the Board of Supervisors, which will have the choice of placing the initiative on the November ballot or simply enacting the measure as written without a public vote.”
Awwww, hell no. They better not simply approve it.
Mmmmmm there was $24 billion lost or uncounted for in LA that was supposed go towards homelessness. Big NO on this one
My guess is this will not pass. My understanding is that LA county is spending already 1 billion dollars EVERY YEAR for the homeless situation and I don't think this is even closer to a solution. At this point, I don't think more money would help. We need a complete shift in the way we think about this issue and how to assist the homeless. https://homeless.lacounty.gov/2022-2023-budget/
Fuck no Im not voting for that. Why the fuck are the top people of departments created to help the homeless pulling in hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary when they're not doing their jobs. Tell them to take a pay cut & use that money to help until then fuck all this bs
NOPE. i actively vote against any props that would increase my taxes. how about opening up the mental asylums and providing other forms of treatment instead of free housing with no strings attached? because obviously the current system isn’t working to reduce homelessness
Jesus, I’m a bleeding heart liberal but throwing money at this issue is obviously not helping. The people in charge need to produce specific plans before asking for money money.
literally just saw the other article about the crazy amount of units LA already has set aside for the homeless that remain EMPTY. so no thanks, not until the rest of this gets under control
Nope no more, I’m done
No
Millions and millions and millions have disappeared this month alone. I’m all for getting the unhoused the help they need. But we have criminals as middle-men.
Fuck off... that's a big fucking NO from me.
I'm voting no this time, they need to figure out how accountability works
Nope.
Nah I’m good. Services are already there and sufficient. We just have a housing supply and a mental health crisis.
I'll be voting NO. I hope you guys do too. The only homeless tax I'll vote for will be to build insane asylums and mandatory treatment centers.
How about we start making effective use of the multi billion a year they already get. They spent 24 billion over the past 5 years and didn’t do any kind of evaluation on the methods and didn’t even keep track of where all the money went. news article
Fuck no. So they can steal more of my taxes and give it to their corrupt friends? How many millions have we wasted on this bullshit with no result.
Sales tax increase to fund private contractor's 4th wife's plastic surgery qualifies for november ballot.
No, make use of what you have.
That's what I'm trying to do.
"Why yes, I've mismanaged billions of dollars, but perhaps if you give me even more I'll do better this time"
Get fucked.
I’ll be voting fuck no on this one
Holy shit instead of more tax, how about a ballot to mandate transparency into how the existing money is spent.
From the article, the ballot proposition will replace the current quarter-cent sales tax due to sunset in 2027 with a permanent half-cent sales tax. Both are for “homeless prevention measures.”. We’ve all been through this routine time and again. If this passes then, a few years later, we’ll be bombarded with stories about how the homelessness problem is now even worse, and more money is needed. There will, of course, be zero stories about how all that tax revenue was spent, or what it accomplished.
They lost millions and have the audacity to ask for more money from those who are barely not homeless themselves
Nah I want some open bookkeeping first babe
Ima be real I don't give a shit about homeless people. Does that anger you? Well guess what the city doesn't either.
No more stealing. I’m done, my capacity for empathy is running dry. It’s even more infuriating when I see post of people “on a flight to Los Angeles to be homeless” f this shit.
Nope. Already paying 10.25% that everyone voted for on promises of projects and services that haven’t happened.
Not voting for anymore tax increases. The middle class is getting fucked to support this. Let’s tax billionaires instead…
FUCK NO
Fuckkk that
VOTE NO, bureaucrats and "non-profits" have consumed millions of dollars and the problem has only gotten worse
Fuck No.
How about you manage the money given to you first? A yes on this is only going to stuff some rich peoples pockets further.
How about slashing the salaries for all top administrators?
Moderator removed comment
14d
It’s just for LA county, not the state.
LA County can fuck off with this bullshit.
Thank you!
Unless the money is specifically earmarked for opening up an asylum, that ballot can fuck off.
Big NO from me. How about you show a plan and some progress with the billions we already approved.
They have plenty of our tax dollars. Start taking it from other dumb shit we don’t need, like militarized police forces.
Pumping money blindly is not the solution. They need to reevaluate all their programs and additionally ask the federal government for a grant and help with the homelessness crisis since the LA City knows that other local cities and also states send their homeless people to California / Los Angeles. There needs to be a way to pay for all that somehow and it needs to be addressed at the federal level.
Another hit at the middle class. Will make more homeless that it fixes.
So in order to help fight homelessness they are going to raise taxes (even more) that will make things more expensive and lead to more people becoming homeless because that tightrope people have been walking just got moved .... Ok got it....
The only homeless policy I will vote to increase taxes for is MANDATORY INSTITUTIONALIZATION, nothing less.
At this point I would rather just hand $20 directly to a homeless person every pay check than have this happen. Like we've seen how bad the bloat/corruption is this year and it's in the millions. It is obvious the unhoused will never see a dime from this initiative.
The most regressive taxation mechanism on offer. Tax luxury products.
so we're a NO on this, right?
cuz, fuck that
More taxes? I can’t afford to live, there’s enough F’ing taxes. Find the money there. Christ.
Do not vote to increase taxes. It won’t help anyone but the fucks who wrote the initiative. The past speaks volumes.
This is So backwards 😭 so Let’s make an already expensive city more expensive so we can help those who can’t afford living in here??? That doesn’t make any sense
Here is the money paragraph, buried at the bottom of the article:
"Because the state has a 10.25% sales tax ceiling, Long Beach can currently only charge .5% sales tax through Measure A, which was intended for public safety and infrastructure. However, special state legislation passed in 2023 would exempt the new LA county tax measure from that ceiling and allow the sales tax to grow as high as 10.75%."
So this measure would increase your sales tax to 10.75%.
FUCK THAT. I’m so done with these taxes. Roads are crumbling and meth heads are always stealing my shit or throwing rocks at cars, yet they have the balls to ask for more tax? Fuck em.
Can't wait to vote this down as well as reverse ULA
Im hearing ula is fucked in nov
Ula supporters are terrified
I don't know how anyone can support it at this point. It was a complete smoke and mirrors shitshow that the city admitted. Put a real death knell to any hope of new apartment housing.
Federal court needs to intervene more.
Fuck that
Fuck this shit.
Hell naw stop the tax stop all raising taxes! Who votes for more taxes!?
First time that I'm going to have to vote "no" for this. Its been years with nothing to show for it, and it feels like we're sliding backwards.
I think that at this point in time, tax payers have advanced several bills in good will to positively affect the homeless situation with severely lacking results over the last decade. To ask yet again when other measures have already been passed is not something I will support at this time.
There needs to be some serious proven results at this point in time.
I remember enthusiastically voting for a similar measure a few years back. and what happened?
It's a shame that I don't have the trust to support something like this again.
Already voted yes on a sales tax increase in 2016 through Measure H for this same issue and the problem is worse than I’ve ever seen it. Where I live near the West LA VA is dystopian. Definitely voting no this time as it was clearly a failure throwing more money at the problem. Money is apparently just an opportunity for more grift.
Can't wait until I'm paying 25% sales tax in 2035 and none of the city's problems have gotten any better
How are we still being taken advantage of by this grift???
That's gonna be a nope from me. They messed up triple HhH big time. The nonprofits use the majority of it on payroll.
Fuck no. We already did this.
I don’t trust them. No more money. No more fraud. No more waste. The answer is a flat out no.
As much as my heart is open. I refuse to vote to raise taxes. I voted to raise taxes so many times too. We are taxed enough. Time for some better solutions.
I supported all the previous measures… but Nope not this time. I don’t think the funds have been used appropriately and I’m not going to vote to make this an endless tax. They still have time to prove themselves, 2027 is still a ways away. But for now nope I’m not voting to make this a forever tax.
I'm sick of this being using as a money pit. Homelessness in LA is not like homelessness in other places-- many of them do not want to be helped or want to seek treatment. Why are we forcing it? We should be focusing on removing them as literal risks to our society. If they're dealing drugs or committing crimes, arrest them and actually prosecute them (as well as literally everyone else that commits crimes, LA way too lax on crime like wtf). If they're mentally unwell, 5150 and institutionalize them and at least give them a chance at treatment. There are so many homeless people iwth no friends or family looking out for them and the last line of protection should be public services. LA is way too lighhanded with this issue while gouging residents for more taxes. I'm sick of it.
NARP
Sales taxes are a tax on the poor who spend more of their income on buying things. Weird way to try to help people who can’t afford to live in this city.
Can’t spend the current money correctly, why should we trust them with more money?
What the fuck?
No I’m fucking done. The state mental hospitals need to open up again force these people into rehab or psychiatric treatment.
If Los Angeles was actually making progress with the billions that’s already been thrown at the problem, I may have considered this. But our city has completely failed on making any meaningful Impact and we have no accountability for how our tax dollars has been spent so far. I’ll be voting no.
Oh HELL to the NO
I'm usually pro-funding social services but sales taxes are one of the few regressive tax systems still in use. It's going to unfairly place the burden of funding this program for LA's low income residents on those low income residents.
What morons think that increasing taxes on themselves is actually helping the situation?
Fuck that just bring back insane asylums put them in there
We've voted for multiple ballots to end homelessness, and there's nothing to show for it. Fuck that. "Representatives" gonna keep pocketing most of the funds.
I can’t believe it, but until all the money thrown at programs ALREADY starts to make a discernible impact- I am not in favor of this shit
Homelessness is a multibillion dollar business/scheme. The losers in all this funding are the homeless, and citizens like us who don’t really get any say so in allocation of these funds/grants.
No No No the sales tax is already over 10% and we have already voted money for this. This town is too expensive already and the sales tax on everything makes it harder. Enough!
No no no. Stop taxing me. It’s already insanely high and inflation is crushing all of us. Stop.
Yeah, that’s a hard no. https://abc7.com/post/new-downtown-los-angeles-high-rise-building-house/14975022/
Here we go again with asking voters for more money, as if it aint expensive enough here already for housed folk.
Hard pass, big dog.
I will be voting no. What happened to the other $609 million already allocated?
Gonna be a no from me dawg
If it actually does anything im all for it.
However, I know that we spent 24 billion fucking dollars in the past few years on homelessness and it has done JACK SHIT.
Dems, you can still be a liberal while not supporting LA to be a sanctuary to homeless! It's doable
screw that. how about sales tax increase to help taxpayers?
I’d vote Yes if it would be for homeless elimination and not “services”
The goodwill for these measures is gone.
Was the city controller Kenneth Mejia ever allowed to audit the the homeless was program? I think we are waiting for this to come out..
We’re better off going against the advice of public officials and just giving straight to the homeless.
We'll never fix the homeless population if you give them free housing. Wouldn't that attract other people who want free housing AND nice weather?
Absolutely 100% not voting for this
No amount of money will solve the homeless problem
How about homeless services stop “losing track of” the money they already get?