O.C. Taxpayers Cough Up Early and Often

Despite their reputation for hating taxes, Orange County residents--who face tax time twice this month--are among the most punctual in the state for paying up, a survey by the state controller’s office says.

The county’s relatively low delinquency rate for property taxes--about 2.3% last year--ranked it eighth among the 58 California counties for the percentage of its tax bills paid on time.

The only big counties with fewer procrastinators per taxpayer were Santa Clara, Santa Barbara and San Mateo.

Far worse at meeting property tax deadlines were Los Angeles and Riverside counties, with delinquency rates of 4.6% and 4.7% respectively. The county that claimed the highest percentage of property tax procrastinators in California last year was tiny Tuolumne, outside Yosemite National Park.

“Orange County is very affluent,” explained county treasurer-tax collector Robert L. Citron, the man to whom property owners write checks this time of year.

And punctuality pays, he said. “You won’t find many large taxpayers who would pay late. The penalties would be too high,” he said.

Those who miss the deadline--which is Tuesday for the second installment of county property taxes--face a 10% penalty, plus a $10 fee for processing the late payment, Citron said.

Citron’s office sent about 679,400 real estate tax bills for the fiscal year, which began in July, 1989. The total property tax bill for the county this year is $1.47 billion.

Since January, money has been pouring into the treasurer’s office at a pace of about $2 million a day. That includes those who are paying early as well as those who missed the December deadline for paying the first half of their taxes for the fiscal year.

For those who may feel taxpayer blues at the prospect of paying both property and income taxes in the span of a week, consider the county’s top 10 tax bills for the year. They are in order:

Irvine Co:.--$37.4 million.

Pacific Bell:--$16.8 million.

Southern California Edison Co.:--$14.2 million.

Rockwell International:--$6.5 million.

Hughes Aircraft:--$6.3 million.

Walt Disney:--$5.4 million.

McDonnell Douglas:--$4.7 million.

Unocal Co.--$4.2 million.

Koll Management Co.:--$4 million.

Marriott Corp.:--$3.8 million.