Commission to Seek State Legislation to Allow Tax Vote

The county’s Legislative Planning Commission voted Friday to seek state legislation that would allow a countywide vote on a half-cent sales tax to pay for a new courthouse and the controversial Gypsum Canyon jail.

The sales tax, which could not be imposed without voter approval, is one of several financing mechanisms the county is considering to generate $700 million to build the facilities and $90 million a year to operate the jail.

County Administrative Officer Larry Parrish said that although there has not been a decision on whether to have an election on the sales tax, the state legislation is required to “preserve an option.”

“It’s a critical need that we’ve got to find a way to finance,” Parrish said.

The legislative commission--whose members are supervisors and county administrators--also discussed a half-cent sales tax for road construction. The members also talked about whether the two half-cent measures should be combined on a 1-cent ballot measure or split, with one on the June and the other on the November, 1990, ballot.

Supervisors Thomas F. Riley and Don R. Roth said they would give priority to the transportation tax if the measures had to be split.

“I’m not interested in having both at the same time because you wouldn’t want them both to lose,” Roth said. Roth also cautioned that the county is still a long way from deciding whether to put a sales tax measure on the ballot.

“My concern is that people will think this is locked in concrete, and it’s far from it,” he said.

Sheriff Brad Gates told the commission members that he believes the public is ready to support a sales tax for jail construction.

Riley, however, said that “the sheriff makes a good case about all of the people he has to let go” because of overcrowding, “but the people who obey the law should have their needs considered too.” With traffic congestion, “we’re talking about the life style of a community that is at risk.”

Last year, county officials suggested that a special countywide taxing district be created so that a surtax might be added to property tax bills to pay for the jail. That financing mechanism is called a Mello-Roos district, named for Assemblyman Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles) and state Sen. Henry J. Mello (D-Watsonville), authors of the enabling legislation.

Establishing such a district would require the approval of two-thirds of the voters, however; the sales tax would require that of only a simple majority.

Parrish noted that the sales tax would draw money from anyone making purchases in the county and that the taxing district would collect only from Orange County property owners.

He added that there is no specific schedule for a decision on the financing package, as any election would be more than a year away.

There is already a citizens initiative on the June, 1990, ballot to stop construction of the 6,000-bed Gypsum Canyon jail. The site is near Anaheim Hills.