Every year, Angelenos are reminded of what it means to pay their share. We file, we write the checks, and we trust that the money serves a purpose.
In Los Angeles County, that trust has been stretched to its limit.
When I founded the Los Angeles County Taxpayers Association, our county had been taxed, lectured, and managed into submission for so long that most residents had resigned themselves to the constant dysfunction as a fixed feature of life, like the traffic or the Santa Ana winds.
The political class had grown comfortable with that resignation. We were not.
Paying taxes is supposed to fund a functioning government, not become a recurring punchline — but for Angelenos, it has become a symbol of something worse: a government that treats every fiscal crisis as an opportunity to reach deeper into your pocket, with less accountability each time.
The clearest recent proof of what unchecked local taxation produces is Measure ULA, the so-called “mansion tax” passed by Los Angeles city voters in 2022.
Supporters promised it would generate up to $1 billion a year for affordable housing by taxing luxury property sales. It has generated roughly $280 to $350 million annually, well under half the floor of those projections.
Worse, a study by researchers at Harvard, UC San Diego, and UC Irvine found that between 63 and 138 percent of the tax’s revenue was offset by lost future property tax revenue.
When you account for forgone property taxes, Measure ULA may actually generate negative net revenue for the city.
A tax designed to solve a housing crisis is actively making it worse. That is what happens when our government chases revenue without regard for economic reality.
Recently, the LA County Board of Supervisors, in a 4-1 vote, placed a new sales tax hike, Measure ER, on the June 2026 ballot — a half-cent countywide sales tax that would push rates to over 10.25% in most cities, causing Angelenos to shoulder the highest sales tax burden in the nation.
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The county projects additional revenues of roughly $1 billion per year, structured as a general tax with all revenue flowing into the general fund.
No legally binding restrictions on how the money is spent. No independent audits. No enforceable accountability. The word of the Board of Supervisors is the only guarantee taxpayers are being offered.
Angelenos deserve to ask: where exactly did last year’s taxes go?
A poll conducted in mid-March found that a majority of City of Los Angeles voters oppose Measure ER, with 47% opposed and 45% in support — a notable result, given that city voters are typically more likely to support tax increases than county voters overall.
This should tell the supervisors something. It tells me that Angelenos have absorbed the lessons of ULA; of Measure H on homelessness; of the steady accumulation of levies that promised transformational outcomes and delivered expensive half-failures.
Affordability is the number one concern driving that opposition, and it should be. You cannot ask families already paying over ten cents on the dollar and facing a cost-of-living crisis to hand another billion dollars annually to a general fund with no strings attached.
The county has legitimate fiscal pressures. Federal funding reductions are real. But the answer to a structural revenue problem is not a blank check. It is an honest accounting of where existing revenue goes, binding commitments to specific programs, and genuine oversight. If the Board cannot offer that, it should not be presenting voters with a new tax measure at all.
Angelenos feel what they pay every day. In June, they will have the chance to say enough.
Measure ER deserves a no vote, and the voters of this county deserve elected officials who earn their trust before asking for their money.
The pendulum in LA County is swinging, and taxpayers will be the ones pulling it hardest.
Aidan Chao is Chairman of the Los Angeles Taxpayers Association. He also serves as an advisor or leader on multiple LA-based campaigns and boards.
