EDITORIAL BACA'S BABY SHERIFF CONTINUES TO PUSH UNWARRANTED TAX HIKE.IT was scarcely a year ago when Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County voters shot down a plan to increase the sales tax sales tax, levy on the sale of goods or services, generally calculated as a percentage of the selling price, and sometimes called a purchase tax. It is usually collected in the form of an extra charge by the retailer, who remits the tax to the government. by a quarter-percent to fund additional police services. It's not that voters were against hiring more cops, they were just fed up with self-serving politicians who disingenuously dis·in·gen·u·ous adj. 1. Not straightforward or candid; insincere or calculating: "an ambitious, disingenuous, philistine, and hypocritical operator, who ... exemplified ... plead poverty amid swelling tax coffers. Yet somehow, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca Leroy David Baca (b. May 27 1942, East Los Angeles, California) is the Sheriff of Los Angeles County, California. After graduating from Benjamin Franklin High School (Los Angeles) in 1960, Baca worked his way through East Los Angeles College before starting with the L.A. didn't seem to get the message. A year later, Baca is pleading poverty again, encouraging county voters to consider the same tax plan they rejected last year. Only this time, Baca's effort isn't merely misguided, it's pathetic. While there's little doubt that Baca's department can use more deputies - it's currently hemorrhaging 430 cops a year - money isn't the problem. The Sheriff's Department employs 8,150 sworn officers, or about 1,100 fewer than it's budgeted for. In other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke" put differently , Baca could increase his force by nearly 13 percent simply by spending the money he already has on hand. But so far, he's been hard-pressed to recruit, train and retain enough officers to keep the force stable, let alone expand it. That's not all his fault. Generous pension plans make it all too appealing for deputies to retire early. Moreover, cop-hiring sprees in neighboring neigh·bor n. 1. One who lives near or next to another. 2. A person, place, or thing adjacent to or located near another. 3. A fellow human. 4. Used as a form of familiar address. v. cities lure some 150 experienced deputies away from the department each year and drain the pool of potential recruits. But these trends only undermine Baca's calls for the sales-tax hike, which, at least in its last incarnation, would have provided funding not only for the Sheriff's Department, but also for law enforcement agencies A law enforcement agency (LEA) is a term used to describe any agency which enforces the law. This may be a local or state police, federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). throughout the county. The fact that so many cities - including Los Angeles - have found the funds to boost their forces without raising taxes exposes the hollowness of the claim that local governments are strapped for cash. They're not. Soaring property-tax revenues have provided a municipal windfall. Los Angeles County's budget is up $565 million this year, including $79 million more for the Sheriff's Department. Of course, Baca wants even more than that, but he's yet to show that he actually needs it. And unless he can, if he takes his tax-hike proposal to the people once again, he can expect the same disastrous result. |
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