Funding Problems for Parks & Recreation Departments

The approach of Los Angeles County to raising funds for parks and recreation activities through referendum (Proposition A) must be assessed as being highly successful in that the proposal passed with a twothirds voter approval during a period of serious economic recession in Southern California. The success of Proposition A in achieving its stated objectives, however, cannot be assessed until more time has elapsed (the proposal received voter approval in November 1992). The passage of Proposition A validated the contention that voters are more likely to support taxation wherein the funds are earmarked for specific purposes than they are likely to support increases in general revenue taxation wherein politicians and public administrators retain control of spending priorities. The success of the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation is using Proposition A money effectively to achieve the proposal's stated objectives will largely determine the future success of such a strategy in Los Angeles County.

The policy analysis determined that the dedicated tax levy was the preferred policy alternative for the funding of parks and recreation

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nd recreation expansion, improvement, and operations. The resulting proposal to the voters, Proposition A, was passed by a twothirds majority of Los Angeles County voters. This approach to the funding problem for parks and recreation activities, a dedicated tax levy, was one of several alternatives available to the Los Angeles County government. Although Proposition A was approved by the voters of Los Angeles County was approved by county voters, the longterm effectiveness of the policy cannot be known at this time. This policy analysis attempts to assess the policy on a prospective basis. Analytical Approach The analytical approach to this prospective assessment employed in this research is a costbenefit analysis. The larger issue underlying the question of the effectiveness of a public policy is whether or not the positive impacts attributable to the policy outweigh the negative impacts that are also attributable to the policy. Costbenefit analysis is the economic tool used most often to make such assessments. Costbenefit analysis, thus, is an analytical approach based upon the theory of welfare economics "to address the issue of whether resources should be withdrawn from the private sector . . . and invested in publi
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Approximate Word count = 4483
Approximate Pages = 18 (250 words per page)

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