Los Angeles property owners are staring down a new line on their tax bills as City Hall moves to tack on a citywide streetlight assessment to pay for badly needed repairs and upgrades after a surge in copper wire thefts left thousands of blocks in the dark.
City officials say the extra charge is intended to bankroll routine maintenance, emergency repairs, and theft hardening across the municipal lighting system. An engineer's report from the Bureau of Street Lighting estimates the new assessment district could pull in about $125 million, with the fee itemized as its own line on property tax bills, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.
The city has mailed what the paper says are more than 500,000 protest ballots, with those mailings expected to reach property owners in April. A special City Council hearing is scheduled for June 2 to count returned protest votes. The engineer's report describes planned improvements that include harder-to-steal wiring, faster repairs, and systemwide lighting upgrades.
Broken streetlights have become a neighborhood safety headache. The Los Angeles Times reports the Bureau of Street Lighting is dealing with roughly 33,000 open repair requests, and that average fix times have stretched to about a year. In response, councilmembers have floated ideas such as rapid repair crews and converting key fixtures to solar power so they are less tempting to copper thieves.
How the protest vote works
Under Proposition 218, property owners in a proposed assessment district must be notified and receive a mailed ballot. If enough of those owners send back protest ballots, they can stop the plan.
As explained by the Bureau of Street Lighting, ballots are weighted, typically by assessment amount. If a weighted majority of returned ballots opposes the increase, the City Council is barred from levying the assessment.
The bureau also says it is gearing up for a separate, citywide ballot process that would update more than 550,000 previously “frozen” parcels so their streetlight charges reflect current maintenance costs instead of old, outdated rates.
What it would cost property owners
Sample numbers in the engineer's report, reported by the Los Angeles Daily News, show how the assessment could hit different types of properties:
- A half-acre retail site could see about $970.76 added.
- A half-acre home could pay about $176.50.
- A quarter-acre single-family lot could owe about $147.08.
- A large multifamily building with more than 50 units could be billed roughly $1,529.68.
The report characterizes the levies as funding “improved security, improved safety, improved economic activity and access,” and notes that assessments would be indexed for inflation each year. How palatable that pricing looks to owners, and how many of them actually return protest ballots, will determine whether the new charge lands on next year's tax rolls.
What to watch next
City Council staff will publicly tally the protest ballots at the June 2 hearing, which also serves as a hard deadline for property owners who want their “no” votes to count.
That same date will bring other revenue questions to voters. The June 2 ballot is expected to include a short-term increase to the city hotel tax and a measure aimed at subjecting illegal cannabis businesses to city taxes, according to LAist and the Los Angeles Times.
Property owners looking for fine print can review Proposition 218 procedures on the Bureau of Street Lighting website or contact the City Clerk for details on ballots and how to file a protest.
