After torching billions on homelessness applications suffering from audits, lacking data and murky bookkeeping, Los Angeles County leaders are actually asking taxpayers at hand over much more cash.
County supervisors this week voted to put a brand new half-cent sales-tax hike on the poll — a transfer that might push the countywide charge to 10.25%, among the many highest within the nation. If authorized, the rise would elevate the price of practically every part, from faculty provides to home equipment and automobile purchases.
The proposal comes simply two years after voters authorized Measure A, a everlasting homelessness gross sales tax that generates greater than $1 billion yearly for housing, mental-health care and associated companies — even because the county’s spending system faces blistering federal court docket scrutiny over its incapability to trace billions already collected.
U.S. District Decide David O. Carter sharply criticized the county after reviewing practically 20 years of audits documenting weak oversight, incomplete monetary data and an incapability to account for the place homelessness funds really went in a evaluation final fall.
Auditors discovered officers couldn’t reliably monitor spending or match expenditures to companies delivered — making it not possible to find out whether or not applications had been efficient and even carried out.
Carter additionally highlighted a 2024 audit accomplished earlier than voters authorized Measure A however launched solely afterward, doubtlessly depriving voters of key info earlier than they agreed to the brand new tax.
“The folks need to know the place their cash goes,” Carter stated, calling the dearth of transparency “deeply troubling.”
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That report discovered greater than $50 million in prior Measure H homelessness funds had been distributed to service suppliers with out formal compensation agreements, with solely about 5% recovered.
A separate court-ordered evaluation of greater than $2.3 billion in homelessness spending uncovered fractured knowledge programs, inconsistent reporting and data so poor auditors typically couldn’t decide how funds had been used — or whether or not applications labored in any respect.
County officers say reforms and new monitoring programs are coming.
The brand new tax proposal is being pitched as a option to offset potential federal health-care cuts affecting Medi-Cal.
Supervisor Kathryn Barger solid the lone dissenting vote, warning the county faces a credibility disaster.
“We’re not, as a complete, credible in terms of guarantees made, guarantees damaged,” she stated.
If voters approve the measure, a $100 buy would carry roughly 50 cents extra in tax — a small enhance that compounds rapidly on bigger purchases.
