Former California Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg said today (Tuesday, Jan. 18) if Los Angeles Mayor Jim Hahn had spent city revenues wisely, Hahn would not be asking the City Council to place a 1/2-cent sales tax increase on the May ballot to pay for additional police officers.

Hertzberg, a candidate in the March 8 mayoral election, said Los Angeles receives nearly a half billion dollars more in annual revenue than it did in 2001, but spent about 75 percent of the incremental difference on salary increases for existing city employees.

He said Hahn had campaigned in 2001 on a platform of adding 1,000 police officers, but to date has added 172. "The mayor had more than enough money to keep his promise but he chose instead to give the money away," Hertzberg said.

"Now that our tax dollars have been misspent the mayor wants to raise even more tax revenue," he said. "Funding the police department demands the right priorities--not more taxes."
    —Donald H. Harrison