Orange County Studies Tax for Jail, Courthouse

Orange County officials are considering a half-cent sales tax to pay for the planned Gypsum Canyon jail and a new courthouse less than 2 months after a special countywide taxing district was proposed for the same purpose.

If the Board of Supervisors endorses the sales-tax approach, it would probably be put on the ballot in the next countywide election, in June, 1990. The supervisors are scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to order county staff to explore the option further and determine how it might be implemented.

The financially strapped county also is considering a half-cent sales tax on the June, 1990, ballot to pay for new roads and highways. County Administrative Officer Larry Parrish said Wednesday that the county staff will “see if it’s possible” to coordinate the two taxing proposals.

Jail Site Initiative

“I think people are not inclined to raise their taxes,” Parrish said. “I don’t think it’s going to be easy, but I think it’s a possibility.”

Complicating the situation even further is the fact that voters in the June, 1990, election are also to decide the fate of a citizens initiative aimed at killing the Gypsum Canyon jail. The initiative, which qualified for the ballot with 112,000 petition signatures, would require that all future county jails be built in Santa Ana, the county seat.

The county has been searching for a way to pay for the Gypsum Canyon jail since last year when the supervisors, under pressure from a federal judge, voted to build it.

Last summer, the supervisors decided against a plan to ask voters to approve a general obligation bond issue to pay for the jail because they did not believe that it would pass.

Then, in October, the county administrative office recommended the creation of a countywide taxing district under special state legislation intended to help local governments pay for public facilities in the post-Proposition 13 era.

Parrish said Wednesday, however, that his staff erred in recommending such a district. He said it was his intention to inform the supervisors that a countywide taxing district was a viable funding option but not to recommend that they pursue that option over others.

“There was a glitch in my own staff,” Parrish said. “(The report to the supervisors) should not have read as a recommendation.”

In view of the fact that almost any financing plan will have to wait for a vote of the people in June, 1990, county officials do not expect to make a final decision on which option to pursue for some time yet.

Parrish said one advantage of the sales tax is that it would have to be approved by only a simple majority of the voters, while the taxing district would require approval by two-thirds of the voters.

Parrish said the sales tax also is attractive because it would spread the financing burden to everyone who makes a purchase in the county, not just Orange County property owners or residents.

Both the taxing district and the sales tax could generate money for operation as well as construction of the jail, both of which are costs the county currently has no resources to pay.

The county now estimates that the 6,000-bed jail will cost about $700 million to build and another $90 million a year to operate. The jail construction once was scheduled to begin next year, and the first phase--including about 3,700 beds--was to open in 1992.

But delays have been rife, and there now is no starting date for the construction.

The courthouse that is being planned for Santa Ana would cost another $250 million and also has no identified source of funding.

In June, 1984, Orange County voters turned down a 1-cent sales tax to pay for transportation projects. But, partly because of recent surveys, some county officials believe that the attitude that defeated that measure is changing.

“I think with the right kind of campaign it has a real chance,” said Orange County political consultant Harvey Englander. “If the sheriff gets up and says how many thousands of prisoners he has to release because there is no space in the jail, that’s a real important and strong message.”

But Rick Violett, head of Taxpayers for a Centralized Jail, which qualified the initiative that is intended to kill the Gypsum Canyon project for the ballot, said he doubted that any taxing measure will be approved by the voters.

“What’s the average citizen’s response to increasing taxes?” he said. “I don’t see it.”