Financial Flimflam Only Buys a Few Years’ Time

Instead of keeping the finances of the county’s Harbors, Beaches and Parks District separate as they have been for decades, the Orange County Board of Supervisors has merged the special district’s money into the county’s general fund.

The merger was not an attempt to establish a more efficient financial structure. It was more a case of moving the funds from one shell to another so that the state’s Gann Initiative couldn’t find them.

The county’s maneuvering is but the latest example of how the Gann Initiative hamstrings local government’s ability to finance valid programs, of the games government plays to get around this ill-conceived measure and of the potential harm, albeit unintentional, that the Gann Initiative can cause.

The initiative, passed in 1979, put a ceiling on government spending based on an arbitrary formula tied to the consumer price index and population growth. Orange County government was coming close to its Gann spending limit this year. To avoid that, the county chose financial flimflam.

By merging the Harbors, Beaches and Parks District income with general fund money, the county’s budget experts believe that they have bought three to five more years before they will again face the Gann spending limit.

In the meantime, there is understandable worry in some quarters that money formerly kept separately in the harbors, beaches and parks fund will be less visible in the general fund and might be used for other projects. County officials insist that won’t happen, and we don’t doubt that they mean it. But several years from now, when growing needs and shrinking revenues put political pressures on the board, today’s assurances may be conveniently overlooked.

The supervisors must resist any temptation to raid the recreation funds. That money must be kept available to maintain the county’s attractive and much-used harbors and beaches. And in this rapidly growing urban area, the county must continue to acquire and develop irreplaceable open space before it is lost forever.

One more thing needs to be done, and done soon. The Gann Initiative must be revised to make it more realistic. Or better still, abolished before it wreaks even more misguided havoc on local government.