Date: August 16, 2021
Author(s): Martin Wachs, Natalie L. Amberg; Jeremy S. Marks
Abstract
Local option sales taxes (LOSTs) provide a large share of funding for local and regional transportation projects and programs in California. Los Angeles County, which generates more LOST revenue than any other county in the nation, currently has four half-cent LOST transportation measures in place, with the first of these approved in 1980. These additions to the state sales tax were each expected to produce $844 million per year and provide more than half of LA Metro’s budget — prior to the COVID-19 pandemic that battered Southern California and threw these estimates into flux. This research addresses four key questions about these important funding mechanisms: 1) How do these sales taxes balance the need to be accountable to voter-approved requirements against the need to be flexible enough to change expenditures as county needs evolve over time? 2) How has “local return” funding, the share of LOST revenues given to city governments, been implemented and managed? 3) To what extent do legal challenges against LOSTs and their implementation reveal their shortcomings and strengths? 4) What impacts has the pandemic had on LOSTs in Los Angeles County?
About the Project
This is the second study of voter-approved transportation sales taxes in Los Angeles County performed by the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies with support from the Haynes Foundation. The earlier […]