The Police Protective League plans to spend millions opposing the firefighters union’s permanent sales tax hike, which would generate an estimated $345 million annually to hire firefighters and build new stations across Los Angeles

By Noah Goldberg
Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Police Department’s officer union said Tuesday it will oppose Measure FD, the half-cent sales tax measure on the Nov. 3 ballot pushed by the city firefighters’ union — setting up a bitter and expensive clash between two of the city’s most powerful unions.

The Police Protective League said it plans to spend several million dollars on broadcast and digital advertising as well as mailers to oppose Measure FD, which, if approved by voters, would direct hundreds of millions of dollars annually to the Fire Department to build new stations, hire firefighters and upgrade equipment.

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Measure FD was pushed by the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112, the union representing rank-and-file firefighters. The union says the measure is essential to modernizing the Fire Department to ensure Angelenos are safe.

But police union’s last-minute campaign aims to squash the tax.

“Our issue is that this is a permanent tax — a forever tax,” union President Ricky Mendoza said in an interview. “We’re 100% for hiring firefighters and prioritizing public safety. This is not a shot at the firefighters. It’s an affordability issue. No one likes the permanence of a tax with no end in sight.”

The firefighters union’s president, Doug Coates, said that his union respects the officers union, but that he thought opposing Measure FD was a bad idea.

“They are choosing to keep the public at risk — especially in our most vulnerable communities,” Coates said. “Measure FD is the most important public safety decision this city has faced in a generation. We urge everyone to vote yes.”

The opposition from the officers led the firefighters union to call for a special meeting of its membership Oct. 16, according to an email shared with The Times. The union’s executive board is asking members to authorize an additional $3 million in spending in support of the measure. The union has already spent more than $2 million on the measure.

“Our internal polling shows that Measure FD is in a good position to get majority support from Los Angeles voters, but opposition from the police officers’ union and potential money spent against our measure requires a strong response from UFLAC,” wrote the executive board of the union in an email Monday to membership.

Although Measure FD has drawn headlines, the ballot initiative didn’t immediately draw much opposition after it qualified for the November election.

Up to this point, the main opponent of the initiative has been the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., a nonprofit that advocates for lower taxes.

The measure needs only a simple majority of voters to support it to pass.

The measure would bring the city’s sales tax to 10.75% and will cost an average of $86 per person and $345 for a family of four in additional sales taxes each year, according to the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn.

The Fire Department already has a budget nearing $1 billion, and the tax is expected to generate an additional $345 million annually for a department that has long said it is woefully underfunded.

If passed, the ballot initiative would require the city to continue funding the department at the same average percentage of the general fund it was funded at in the decade before the initiative was placed on the ballot.

The firefighters union has said that by 2050, the tax would allow the department to build at least 30 new fire stations, buy new fire trucks and increase its size by about 1,400 people.

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