EDITORIAL TOUGH SELL LOCAL OFFICIALS MUST SHOW FISCAL PRUDENCE BEFORE ASKING FOR ANOTHER HANDOUT.

LOS Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca is sure to have a tough time talking voters into agreeing on a new, half-cent sales tax to pay for more police throughout the county. Even with the added support of Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn and the Police Commission to get the measure on the next ballot, Baca still has to overcome a big dark cloud.

It isn't that there's a lack of support for police or fire services in Los Angeles. Quite the contrary. Everybody appreciates the hard work by Los Angeles' police officers and sheriff's deputies, not to mention the firefighters and paramedics and all others who contribute to making the public safer.

Nor is it cost, necessarily. The half-cent sales tax would be borne by anyone who purchases goods in the county and would raise a lot of money to help cash-strapped law enforcement fight crime.

As much as $168 million would go to the Los Angeles Police Department to hire more cops, adding as many as 1,200 officers to the force of 9,100. This is something that nearly everyone agrees is one of the top priorities for the city.

Despite that, Baca must overcome the past performance of officials' stewardship of the public treasury that has been, in a word, lousy.

Los Angeles city officials continue to waste money while nickel-and-diming residents with ``fee'' hikes to pay for their fiscal folly. Just the other day, homeowners in the city started receiving notes about a $1-a-month increase in their trash fee. Not a huge increase, granted, but it comes just a few months after the last trash fee increase of $4 a month, as well as a sewer fee increase and planned water rate hikes.

The county has done a somewhat better job of late financially, although many of its agencies are habitually badly run.

The problem is that there is no guarantee that raising new money will make officials any more prudent in spending it. Instead they continue to flagrantly disregard the public's interest, putting their interests above everything else.

It goes right to the heart of government accountability. Sure, the revenue from the half-cent sales tax would be designated for public safety only. But that doesn't mean the money that cities use for public safety now would be off limits.

Who's to say that after getting a $168 million check from the sales tax revenue, L.A. city officials don't turn around and remove a similar amount in general funds now going to the LAPD to pay for frivolous programs, junkets to exotic locales and generous raises to themselves and others? Similar things happen all the time.

Luckily, two-thirds of county residents would have to approve this ballot measure for the sales tax to become reality.

And until local officials start showing us a consistent pattern of wise spending and good leadership, asking taxpayers to cough up millions more is sure to be one tough sell.