California Democrats talk about affordability like a pickpocket promising to help find your wallet.
They hold hearings and issue press releases about struggling families. They lament the rising costs of housing, gas, groceries, utilities, insurance, and child care. When the government seeks more funding, it reaches for the same tired solution: raise taxes on the very people it claims to help.
Assembly Bill 1768 would do exactly that.
Authored by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, the measure would allow L.A. County to impose an additional half-cent sales tax, even if doing so exceeds the existing local sales tax cap. In plain English, Sacramento wants to punch a hole through the ceiling that was supposed to protect taxpayers. It’s an “urgency” statute, so it would take effect immediately.
Assemblymember Bryan tries to frame AB 1768 in the language of compassion. During a committee hearing, he said the bill would allow L.A. County voters “step up” to protect vulnerable communities from federal health care cuts. He went further, warning that without this authority, the county could be forced to lay off thousands of employees (perish the thought) or “let thousands more die on our sidewalks.”
Only in Sacramento can a bill authorizing a higher sales tax be described as “not raising taxes.”
L.A. County voters will face a June 2, 2026, tax measure, Measure ER, which would add another 0.5 percent to the countywide sales tax. In reality, AB 1768 is a Measure ER fix, meaning it’s necessary to enable Measure ER’s tax increase. If Measure ER fails, it would create broader authority for L.A. County to breach the tax cap as early as this November.
That threat alone should alarm anyone who pays bills, runs a business, or has seen government expand as basic services deteriorate.
L.A. County is already overtaxed, overregulated, and increasingly unaffordable.
The countywide sales tax rate is 9.75 percent. Many cities have higher rates. Burbank, Pasadena, Long Beach, and Carson are at 10.5 percent. Culver City, Santa Monica, Glendora, and Lynwood are at 10.75 percent. Lancaster and Palmdale are already at 11.25 percent.
Orange County cities, including Irvine, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, and San Clemente, are at 7.75 percent. Many cities in Riverside and San Bernardino counties are at 8.75 percent. Ventura County communities, including Camarillo and Ojai, are at 7.25 percent.
Supporters argue that voters still get to decide. Technically true, but politically incomplete. Taxpayers are being asked to vote in a system where government agencies, public employee unions, and tax-funded special interests advocate for higher taxes with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Meanwhile, the people paying the bill are busy working, commuting, raising families, and trying to survive California’s cost of living.
Sales taxes make it more difficult for consumers to buy items and for local businesses to sell them. They show up when a family buys school clothes, appliances, furniture, restaurant meals, household goods, or a used car.
That neighborhood business isn’t just competing with the store down the street. It is competing with businesses in other counties, where the tax burden is significantly lower. For big-ticket purchases, consumers notice. Small businesses operating on thin margins feel it.
L.A. County doesn’t suffer from a shortage of tax revenue. It suffers from a shortage of accountability. Billions have been spent on homelessness. Billions more have flowed into transportation, social services and county programs. Residents still see encampments, deteriorating infrastructure, public safety concerns and declining confidence in government competence.
The answer from Sacramento is not reform or better management. It’s always more funding.
AB 1768 punctures the affordability myth. When campaign season arrives, California’s political class talks about easing burdens on working families. When budget season arrives, they demand more from those same families and then complain about it later.
Taxpayers need to tell the Legislature to reject AB 1768. Sacramento should stop making L.A. County more expensive and start asking why so many people and businesses are looking for the exits.
Matthew Klink is the owner and president of Klink Campaigns, Inc. Learn more at www.klinkcampaigns.com.