L.A. voters face another tax test for firefighters

L.A. voters – Los Angeles City Council voted 14-0 to put a half-cent sales tax increase on the Nov. 3 ballot to raise $345 million annually for the Los Angeles Fire Department—aimed at hiring more firefighters, upgrading equipment, and building new stations. The decision co

For the seventh day, smoke from a Boyle Heights cold storage facility hung over the region’s eastern edge. Behind the scenes, the fight for money to respond faster was already moving toward the ballot box.

On Tuesday. the Los Angeles City Council voted 14-0 to ask voters later this year to approve a half-cent sales tax that would generate $345 million annually for the Los Angeles Fire Department. Supporters say the additional funds would go toward more firefighters, new fire stations and new equipment, including firetrucks and helicopters.

The timing landed in a place that city leaders could not ignore. The council’s decision came nearly 18 months after the outbreak of the Palisades fire. which destroyed thousands of homes in Pacific Palisades. Malibu and other coastal areas and left 12 people dead. But Tuesday’s vote also tracked the city’s more immediate struggle: extinguishing the blaze at the Boyle Heights facility. where the fire has spread smoke across the region over the last week.

The campaign is being spearheaded by United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112, the union that represents nearly 3,400 firefighters. Appearing before the council, union leaders pointed to the Boyle Heights fire as the latest sign that the city needs more money for emergency response.

“This is our plan to undo decades of under-investment in the department,” said Ryan Quigley, a 23-year firefighter/paramedic who also serves as the union’s secretary.

Mayor Karen Bass, through a spokesperson, said she is grateful to the union for bringing the tax proposal forward. “[The mayor] has championed this measure from the very beginning,” spokesperson Paige Sterling said in a statement.

Union leaders began gathering signatures for the tax earlier this year and submitted them to the city clerk last month. Even so, the road to approval may not be simple—because Los Angeles voters have recently been asked to pay more.

Last month. Los Angeles County voters narrowly passed a different half-cent sales tax hike expected to raise $1 billion annually to pay for healthcare. That measure received just above the 50% needed for passage and pushed the tax rate within the city of Los Angeles to 10.25 cents for every dollar of spending.

If voters approve the fire tax increase as well, the rate will jump to 10.75 cents per dollar.

The firefighters union will also be campaigning in a year when one of its recent leaders. Adam Walker. has been charged with one count each of grand theft and forgery. Walker is accused of stealing more than $82. 000 from a charity for injured firefighters to pay for his online gambling. his mortgage and other personal expenses. Union President Doug Coates said Walker left his position two years ago. Coates said the union intends to make clear to voters that “the money is going to the right thing.”.

So far, no one has emerged as an opponent of the tax increase. The Central City Assn., a downtown-based business group, is supporting the fire tax.

Susan Shelley, spokesperson for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., said her organization has not taken a position on the proposal. Still, Shelley argued that sales taxes in general are “extremely regressive,” hitting the hardest for Angelenos who can afford it the least.

“Our view is that the city budget should be prioritized to fund the fire department from the first dollar, not the last dollar,” Shelley said. “And that there shouldn’t be a need for a tax increase.”

If the fire tax hike is approved. backers say it would represent the most significant public investment in the fire department since 2000. when voters passed a $532-million bond measure to pay for new facilities. They argue the sales tax increase would help the department speed up emergency response times while also building new fire stations and repairing existing ones.

The union began work on the tax proposal more than two years ago, before the inferno that erupted on Jan. 7, 2025 and carved a lethal path through Pacific Palisades and other communities. The push for funding gained more attention after the fire. While flames were still raging. then-Fire Chief Kristin Crowley went on local and national television to accuse city leaders of failing to give her department the resources it needed. The media blitz shocked some at City Hall. who believed Crowley should have waited until the emergency was over before publicly assigning blame.

Crowley and the union said city leaders had forced the department to scale back its operations amid a budget crunch. Bass and the city’s policy analysts pointed to fire department spending growing that year. largely because of pay increases given to firefighters. Bass ultimately ousted Crowley, saying the chief failed to properly deploy firefighters amid warnings of dangerous Santa Ana winds. Crowley, demoted to another position, filed a lawsuit against the city, saying the mayor engaged in a retaliation campaign.

In recent days, the Boyle Heights fire has helped reignite the argument that the department needs more resources. Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez. whose Eastside district has been enveloped in smoke over the last week. told her colleagues that climate change and corporate negligence are making emergencies “more frequent and more severe.”.

“Whether it’s the devastating fires that hit Altadena and the Palisades last year, or the Boyle Heights warehouse fire currently affecting air quality and public health across the whole city, every one of our districts is feeling the impacts,” she said before voting to put the tax on the ballot.

Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Palisades, said the fires in the Palisades and Boyle Heights have “exposed Los Angeles’ urgent need to modernize LAFD for the realities and demands of a modern century.”

Fire Chief Jaime Moore, in an interview Monday, said he asked Bass to declare a state of emergency last week so his department could obtain additional resources to fight the Boyle Heights fire. Those resources, Moore said, include firefighters, firetrucks, drone pilots and hazardous materials teams.

“I had firefighters work Wednesday afternoon, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. I talked to my incident commander. and he goes. ‘Chief. these guys are getting their butts kicked.’ And that’s when I said. ‘I’m gonna reach out to the mayor. and I’m gonna see what I can do to get the state of emergency declared.’”.

Supporters of the sales tax increase contend the department lacks the personnel to serve a city of nearly 4 million people. The union says L.A. has nearly 3,400 firefighters, roughly the same number as 50 years ago.

If voters pass the sales tax hike, union officials said, the city would have the funds to bring the department up to 5,000 firefighters by 2050.

Right now, Tuesday’s 14-0 vote has moved the decision into voters’ hands—at a moment when smoke is still part of daily life, and when Los Angeles is already recalibrating to a new layer of local taxes after a narrowly approved healthcare measure.

Los Angeles City Council Los Angeles Fire Department firefighters sales tax Nov. 3 ballot Boyle Heights fire Palisades fire United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112 Adam Walker Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn.