The sad part is that politicians constantly swindle voters in California, and especially in LA, into voting for tax increases by telling them the money will go to a good cause.
Page F4From§Eachthe late evening edition — 1 October 2026
Unions spend $10 million calling a tax a good cause; it costs $200 a year.
As it ran on the front
In June, voters in Los Angeles County approved Measure ER, a half-cent increase to the county sales tax, after a campaign that spent $10 million telling them the increase was for a good cause. The pitch did not specify what a half cent adds up to at the register. On October 1, the register answered: every taxable dollar in the county now carries the extra half cent, and the accounting on a typical family's spending puts the new total at roughly $200 a year.
Run that against the campaign cost. Ten million dollars bought the persuasion. Two hundred dollars a year is what each family's own ledger pays toward it, repeated every year the half cent stays on the receipt. The campaign spent once. The family's bill does not stop.…
…(cont) One wire account called the campaign "sneaky." Another called the pitch a pattern: politicians "constantly swindle voters in California" by tying a tax increase to a cause nobody wants to vote against. Neither account disputes that Measure ER passed in June, or that the half cent started showing up in cash registers on October 1. What's disputed is only what voters were told the half cent would feel like, standing at the counter, a year from now.
The half cent does not ask what the shopper earns.
Six years ago, Washington ordered many small businesses to close during the pandemic, then lent some of them money to survive the closure. This September, it began asking for that money back, and the paper reports some of those businesses still have not recovered. Different level of government, different ledger, same arithmetic: the bill arrives after the circumstance that created it, and arrives whether or not the business receiving it is positioned to pay.
The $10 million bought a yes. The $200 a year is what yes costs, filed every April and rung up a half cent at a time, every time the register opens, hon.
“Ten million bucks to convince you a tax is a good cause, and the invoice that comes back to your family is two hundred a year, every year, forever — that's not a campaign, that's a financing cost, and you're the one financing it. Notice the half cent doesn't care if you're flush or broke; it just rings. The persuasion was a one-time expense; your bill never ends.”
“Look, Measure ER passed fair and square in June, voters had their say, and a half cent is practically nothing — did I just call two hundred dollars a year "nothing"? Let me circle back. The point is the campaign was transparent about the cause, just maybe light on the arithmetic, which, fine, is kind of the whole arithmetic.”
The receipts
LA County's new sales tax hit cash registers Thursday, tacking an extra half-cent onto every taxable dollar Angelenos spend after a sneaky $10 million union campaign slammed as "deceitful."
A typical LA family will have to pay $200 per year, or more, to LA County in additional taxes this year — thanks to the new sales tax hike that went into effect Oct. 1. How’s that for “affordability“?
· Washington shut down small businesses. Now it wants its money back from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.