As Of July 1, Long Beach Consumers Now Pay 10.25% Sales Tax, Highest Rate in State (Tied With Only A Few Other Cities)

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(July 1, 2017) -- As of July 1, consumers in Long Beach will begin paying 10.25% sales tax, the highest rate among all CA cities (tied with South Gate, Compton, Santa Monica, Pico Rivera, Lynwood, La Mirada and East Lynwood.)

By comparison, consumers buying the same items will pay 9.25% in Signal Hill, Lakewood and Los Angeles, and 7.75% in most OC cities including Huntington Beach, Seal Beach and Los Alamitos.

Long Beach consumers have this distinction as a result of voter approval of a Metro-written L.A. countywide half-cent sales tax increase (Nov. 2016, over a 2/3 margin) on top of a LB City Hall-written sales tax increase (June 2016, passed with roughly 60%.)

Metro staff and hired consultants wrote the measure for Metro-desired projects in a ballot measure opposed by then-Metro boardmember/now-former L.A. County Supervisor Don Knabe, who argued it didn't provide SE LB with a sufficient share of projects. The Long Beach City Council, with the support of soon-to-become Metro Boardmember Mayor Robert Garcia, urged voter approval of the measure.

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ATT'N: NAPLES, BELMONT SHORE, PENINSULA AREA RESIDENTS & BUSINESSES
FROM: DTM SECURITY
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A little over a year earlier (June 2016), Long Beach voters approved a City Hall-sought sales tax increase (Measure A), enacted with less than 2/3 voter approval with only 50%+1 required because City Hall wrote the measure as "blank check" without legal guaranteed specific purposes. A $600,000+ campaign for the measure followed, led by Mayor Garcia, using a campaign that, city clerk records show, was funded in part by entities doing business with City Hall; the two largest contributors were LB's police and firefighter unions.

Grassroots opponents had no similarly funded opposition, and some LB civic groups allowed the Mayor to speak in support of the measure without allowing opponents to be heard.. The measure failed passage in LB's 5th Council district, narrowly passed in the 3rd district, and passed by large margins in other Council districts.

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Following passage of Measure A (from which LB's General Fund now receives roughly $45+ million a year), the LB City Council approved pay raises for nearly all LB city employee unions (including city management), restored 17 out of 208 police officers, restored Fire Engine 8 and paramedic Rescue 12 but not Fire Engines 17, 101 or 18, and began a City Hall decided program of infrastructure and street repair projects.

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