Los Angeles property owners could soon see higher tax bills as the city moves to address a streetlight crisis fueled by rampant copper wire theft, aging equipment, and decades of flat funding.
According to the Daily News, the Los Angeles City Council is advancing a plan to create a new property assessment that would raise an additional $125 million per year for streetlight maintenance and repair. Under the proposal, a single-family home on a roughly quarter-acre lot would be assessed an additional $147.08 for the 2026–27 fiscal year. Homeowners on half-acre lots would pay $176.50, condominium owners slightly less, and larger properties significantly more — a multi-family building with more than 50 units would face a charge of $1,529.68. The assessments would rise with inflation each year and would appear directly on property tax bills.
The move comes as the city struggles with a mounting backlog of broken streetlights. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, roughly one in 10 of the city’s approximately 225,000 streetlights is currently out of service due to disrepair or copper wire theft. The Bureau of Street Lighting has more than 33,000 open service requests, and the average repair time has stretched to 12 months. The bureau has just 185 staff members to manage the entire system.
In neighborhoods like Mar Vista, Lincoln Heights, Hancock Park, and Pico Union, copper wire theft has plunged streets into darkness. On the 6th Street Bridge alone, thieves made off with seven miles’ worth of wire. Andrew Marton, a Mar Vista homeowner, said his street has been dark since shortly after Christmas and that he was told it would take 270 days to fix. He said the situation has changed how his family lives day to day.
To address the theft problem at its root, Council members Katy Yaroslavsky and Eunisses Hernandez have unveiled a separate $65 million plan to convert at least 12% of the city’s streetlights — roughly 500 per council district — to solar power, which is far less vulnerable to copper theft. Three other council members, Traci Park, Monica Rodriguez, and Hugo Soto-Martínez, have also signed on to the solar initiative.
“We can’t keep rebuilding the same vulnerable systems while copper theft continues to knock out lights across Los Angeles,” Yaroslavsky said.
City crews have already begun converting 91 streetlights to solar in Lincoln Heights and Cypress Park, funded by $500,000 from Hernandez’s office budget. Soto-Martínez has also put $1 million into a dedicated repair team for his district, which stretches from Echo Park to Hollywood and north to Atwater Village.
The current streetlight maintenance assessment has not changed since 1996, forcing the city to rely on other funding sources to cover basic upkeep. Under California’s Proposition 218, the Right to Vote on Taxes Act, property owners must be formally notified and given the opportunity to cast a protest vote. If more than 50% of assessed property owners submit protest ballots, the new fee cannot be collected. Any ballot that is not returned is counted as a “yes.” The city has scheduled a special hearing for June 2, when returned protest ballots will be tallied.
Miguel Sangalang, director of the Bureau of Street Lighting, acknowledged the scope of the problem, noting that stagnant budgets and rising vandalism have both contributed to the repair backlog. Hernandez said the shift to solar would break the cycle of constant repairs.
“This is going to bring more public safety and more lights to neighborhoods that so desperately need it and that are waiting a long time,” she said.
The City Council’s vote to advance the fee increase on Tuesday marks a key step in a process that will ultimately be decided by Los Angeles property owners. If the assessment is approved, the new charges would begin appearing on tax bills starting in the 2026–27 fiscal year.
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