EDITORIAL ANOTHER TAX HIKE? CITY HALL NEVER GIVES UP BILKING THE PUBLIC.

BOND issues already tack an average of $374 a year to the typical Los Angeles homeowner's tax bill, but that doesn't seem to faze members of the City Council. They want to raise that total by upward of $35 a year.

And they think they've come up with a crafty way to do it: by exploiting the public's sympathy for emergency workers in the wake of Sept. 11.

That's why the March 2002 ballot will include a $600 million bond measure mainly to build police and fire stations. City Hall hopes that sentiment will override common sense at the polls, with the public wanting to show its support for cops and firefighters.

But it's not the cops and firefighters who stand to gain from one more tax hike, it's City Hall and the well-connected contractors. As for the rest of us, there's no shortage of reasons to oppose yet another tax hike.

For starters, we're in the midst of tough economic times - the worst possible time to raise taxes, especially property taxes. These days jobs and income are scarce, when many families are hard-pressed just to pay the mortgage every month.

And then there's the question of how much taxation is enough. Thanks to past bond issues to finance libraries, schools, animal shelters and various other projects, L.A. residents already pay more than 15 percent extra because of various voter-approved surcharges - far more than any of their county neighbors.

In other cities, like Glendale and Burbank, people pay lower taxes and get far better public services because those cities' governments spend money more wisely and serve the interests of the residents better.

Los Angeles City Hall has done absolutely nothing to show it can be trusted with an additional $600 million.

And there's even less reason to think that L.A. needs more police or fire stations at all. The city is so short on police officers and firefighters that it lacks the personnel to fill the existing facilities.

But the strongest reason to oppose City Hall's latest money-grab is the arrogance and greed of the city's politicians.

City leaders insist that if the San Fernando Valley secedes, L.A. City Hall would keep almost all public assets located in the Valley - including police stations and fire departments - while the new Valley city would retain little else but the debt.

As long as they insist on that approach, they don't deserve any more of the taxpayers' money. Valley residents would be foolish to raise their own taxes again to pay for the same facilities twice - first to build them, then to buy them back from Los Angeles.

Valley residents support their firefighters and police officers, but they're not fools. They won't be conned by city officials who have yet to prove they can pave the crumbling streets and sidewalks, provide basic emergency services or protect the quality of ordinary people's lives.