Los Angeles County consumers are angry about their sales tax increasing to help the homeless, despite approving the increase with nearly 60% of the vote in a ballot referendum.
In 2017, Los Angeles County voters approved the first version of this tax increase, Measure H, which was supposedly aimed at tackling the homelessness problem — overwhelmingly supporting the measure with roughly 70% of the vote. A vote in favor of Measure H authorized a “0.25 percent county sales tax for 10 years in order to fund homeless services and prevention.”
In November 2024, Los Angeles County voters approved Measure A — doubling that sales tax — with roughly 58% of the vote. A ‘yes’ vote on Measure A authorized the county to repeal the Measure H tax and replace it with “a sales tax of 0.5% with revenue going to affordable housing, mental health and addiction treatment, and services to children, families, veterans, domestic violence survivors, seniors, and disabled people experiencing homelessness.”
On April 1, the new sales tax went into effect, and Los Angeles County consumers are now angry that prices have increased — as the county’s sales tax went from an already insanely high amount, 9.5%, to 9.75%.
“I didn’t vote for this!” one disgruntled resident reportedly wrote on Facebook.
California is already the highest-taxed state in the country when considering all forms of taxes, and adding another quarter-percent just makes it worse, especially for two Los Angeles County cities: Lancaster and Palmdale. Thanks to the sales tax increase, consumers in these two cities are now paying a staggering 11.25% sales tax, which is the highest in the United States.
This news is also prompting concerns from Los Angeles County consumers because of the county’s history of failing to deal with homelessness — as a shocking recent audit showed that Los Angeles could not account for a staggering $2.3 billion supposedly spent on homeless services.
This is San Francisco.
$24 BILLION tax dollars spent on the homeless crisis
A recent audit showed no one knows where the money went@GavinNewsom has a lot of blood on his hands!@DOGE and @elonmusk should investigate California next!!🇺🇸🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/4fEM11n3lM
— Corbin Williams (@corbinwilliams) February 13, 2025
The homelessness crisis in Los Angeles has been described as “the worst in the developed world,” and the Democrat-run city has so severely mismanaged the crisis that it only continues to worsen. Most of the money allocated to deal with the problem goes to what journalist Tim Pool describes as the “Homeless Industrial Complex,” where the money is just funneled to nonprofits and other organizations, who pocket the money, spend some of it on “outreach,” then ask for more money because the homelessness problem still isn’t solved.
