West Hollywood Could Soon Have a Higher Sales Tax Than Any Major City in America

West Hollywood residents will vote Tuesday (and have been voting) on a half-cent sales tax increase that would push the city’s combined rate to 11% — higher than Chicago, Seattle, New York City, and every other major city in the United States.

That’s not a talking point from the opposition. It’s just the math.

Los Angeles County’s Measure ER asks voters to add 0.5% to the county sales tax for five years, starting October 2026, to fund public hospitals and clinics facing massive federal Medi-Cal cuts. West Hollywood’s combined sales tax is already at 10.50%. That’s before Measure ER. If it passes, the rate hits 11.00%.

Among major U.S. cities, Seattle and Chicago currently sit near the top at around 10.25%. New York City is at 8.875%. West Hollywood isn’t a major city by population, but the tax residents pay at the register would exceed all of them.

What Measure ER does

The sales tax is a half-cent — about 5 cents on every $10 spent. Items not included: groceries, prescription drugs, and medical equipment. The tax would start in October 2026 and run for five years, through October 2031. They would have to bring it back to the voters if they wanted to extend it.

The Board of Supervisors put it on the ballot in February, 4-1. Supervisor Kathryn Barger was the only no vote. The county’s projecting roughly $1 billion a year.

Why supporters say it’s needed

Federal cuts tied to the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act are expected to slash more than $2.4 billion from LA County’s health services budget over three years. The cuts reduce Medi-Cal funding, the state’s Medicaid program, leaving an estimated 700,000 county residents without health insurance.

Earlier this year, the LA County Department of Public Health said it had to close seven of its clinics due to a loss of more than $50 million in federal, state, and local funding.

Supporters say the concern isn’t just for those losing coverage. As more people lose insurance, they show up to emergency rooms sicker and with more serious conditions — driving up costs for everyone, including those with private insurance. Without the tax, they say, more clinics will close and at least one public hospital could follow.

Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who co-introduced the measure with Supervisor Hilda Solis, said in a statement: “I do not take lightly asking fellow residents to consider imposing a ½ percent retail tax. This option is on the table because what’s at stake are safety net services unraveling for millions of residents — which would come at an even greater cost for the largest county in the nation.”

Louise McCarthy, president and CEO of the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County, said the measure “is an urgent and necessary step to stop the damage, to protect access to life-saving care.” Venice Family Clinic and MLK Community Healthcare are among the organizations backing it.

The case against it

Barger said in a statement: “Backfilling federal funding cuts on the backs of county taxpayers is not acceptable. Los Angeles County residents are already stretched thin. This proposed half-cent increase would push us even higher, making our county less affordable for families and less appealing for consumers to shop and businesses to operate.”

She also pointed to the Antelope Valley cities in her district. “This measure is going to create a tax system in LA County where I’ve got two cities, Lancaster and Palmdale, they’re going to be the highest taxed in the nation,” she said. “You have the working class that are barely able to make ends meet, and this is just going to add an extra burden.”

The Torrance City Council voted unanimously to oppose the measure. The Pasadena Chamber of Commerce board voted to “strongly oppose” it, citing concerns about rising costs for consumers and businesses, as well as what it described as insufficient oversight and ineffective use of existing county funds.

Barger has also argued that surrounding counties face the same Medi-Cal pressures and aren’t asking voters for a new tax, and that the state should step in instead. “I believe the system as a whole needs to be looked at,” she said. “You can’t piecemeal.”

The general fund question

There’s another layer to this most voters don’t know about as they head into the booth. Even if Measure ER passes, the tax can’t take effect without Assembly Bill 1768, a state bill by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan that exempts LA County from the state’s existing cap on local sales taxes. Without it, the rate increase would be illegal under current state law. AB 1768 passed the Assembly 55-15 on May 14 and cleared the Senate 29-8 on May 20. As of June 1, it was awaiting Governor Newsom’s signature. For what it’s worth, he signed a nearly identical bill to enable Measure A, the county’s homelessness sales tax, after voters approved it in 2024.

The other thing worth noting, Measure ER is a general tax, which means the $1 billion a year doesn’t go into a locked healthcare account — it goes into the county’s general fund, the same pot of money that pays for everything else, and the Board of Supervisors decides during the annual budget process how much of it actually ends up at hospitals and clinics. The county has published a spending plan. It calls for 45% to go to the Department of Health Services for uninsured residents, 22% to public hospitals and clinics, 10% to the Department of Public Health, and the rest split among nonprofits, school-based care, and Medi-Cal outreach. But that spending plan isn’t a legal requirement. It’s what the current board says it intends to do.

A future board could change it. There’s nothing in the measure that stops that from happening.

Barger said it at the February meeting: “We are not, as a whole, credible when it comes to promises made, promises broken.”

The measure does include independent audits and a citizens’ oversight committee. Supporters point to those as accountability guardrails. They’re real, but they’re advisory — they can flag problems, they can’t force budget votes.

The Question 

Can residents afford another tax? The public image of West Hollywood is the Sunset Strip, celebrity restaurants, luxury hotels and multi-million dollar mansions. Census data tells a different story.

About 80% of residents are renters. Their median household income runs around $79,000 — not poverty, but not the image, especially once you factor in what it costs to live here. Seniors are a bigger part of this city than most people realize: roughly 5,800 of the city’s 34,884 residents are 65 or older. Their median household income is $38,859 — less than half the citywide median of $96,995. Close to 13% of all residents live below the poverty line. A half-cent sales tax increase falls hardest on the people least able to absorb it.

West Hollywood incorporated in 1984 because of those residents — seniors on fixed incomes, LGBTQ+ community members, and renters who organized against real estate interests and voted the city into existence. The rent stabilization ordinance, one of the strongest in California, dates to that founding.

Sales taxes are regressive by design. A senior living on $38,000 a year pays the same rate at the register as a Sunset Strip hotel owner. The half-cent would cost that senior roughly $60 more a year on $1,000 a month in taxable purchases — on top of the increases that have already landed.

West Hollywood’s rate was 9.50% before November 2020, when city voters approved Measure E, a three-quarter-cent increase to cover COVID-19 revenue shortfalls, bringing it to 10.25%. LA County’s Measure A, approved by county voters in November 2024 and effective April 2025, added another quarter-cent for homelessness services, pushing West Hollywood to 10.50%. Measure ER would be the third sales tax increase in five years.

Where the vote stands

A recent poll showed 47% of likely LA County voters opposing Measure ER and 45% supporting it. A separate poll sponsored by the California Democratic Party put undecided voters at 14%. It’s going to be close.

If the measure passes, the additional 0.5% takes effect in October 2026. If it fails, the county will have to find other ways to address the healthcare shortfall — or not address it at all.

Polls open Tuesday at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Mail ballots can be dropped off at any official drop box through 8 p.m. on Election Day.