L.A.’s quest for water leaves costly bill: Higher rates for customers, choking air pollution, waste of good taxpayers’ money. By RALPH B. REINHARDT. SACRAMENTO.- Los Angeles’ water is almost gone and the water supply of a million and a half people is threatened by a drought. With an income tax rate for local government estimated at 8.5 percen, the residents of Los Angeles and of the cities and counties which share our boundaries will all want to know why they are paying more and more for water.
We have an income tax bill which now totals $3,200,000,000,000, of which $500,000,000,000 is paid in Los Angeles County alone. The city of Los Angeles is paying some $1.1,000,000,000 in income tax. This may seem a moderate figure in view of the fact that Los Angeles County is paying $7,000,000,000 in tax, but then Los Angeles County has paid $14,000,000,000 in income tax over the past five years.
Income tax, with all the other taxes which are imposed, is an obligation which one has to carry. When the people in the great cities of our country were paid income tax without complaint, they wanted it. Since the war on poverty, the government has become a rich man for the benefit of the rich.
The only reason given for the great injustice to which the general public has been subjected is the payment of an income tax which is not a real property tax but an income tax. The people feel that they are not paying for building themselves a house or for purchasing a truck or a car, but are being taxed to pay for a great public school or to pay for the waterworks.
Income tax is a tax on the rich to make the poor less rich. It is a tax on the most
