County Solves Budget Crisis at Others’ Expense

Re “Orange County Budget Cuts to Affect the Poor the Most” (Aug. 25) and the Orange County budget crisis in general: Has the County of Orange thought to look to itself for the answer to its budget crisis? No. Instead, it is squeezing the solution out of everyone else.

It is very disconcerting to learn we are ruled by a county bureaucracy that, in order to balance its budget, will deny the working poor crucial emergency room care, but at the same time add 1,146 positions to its 16,000-member county employee pool; a county bureaucracy that will balance its budget by denying poor people much-needed social programs, while at the same time authorizing healthy pay raises for its top administrators.

In further attempts to balance its budget on the backs of others, this county bureaucracy will dip into vital city revenues by levying prisoner and property tax processing fees on those cities, jeopardize essential education programs by levying processing fees on already strapped school districts and deny communities their right to local control by aggressively lobbying against incorporations.

In summary, denial of programs to the poor, denial of emergency care to the sick, denial of revenue to the cities, denial of education programs to the students, denial of rights to those struggling to achieve local control. The only entity missing in this litany of denial is the county. Because, at its own hand, the county bureaucracy is growing and expanding.

Such actions and attitudes smack of the same arrogance that eventually turned Boston Harbor into one big teacup. While revolution isn’t always the answer, in this case it may be necessary. Lest the county bureaucrats suffer the same fate as Marie Antoinette, I suggest they stop eating cake and tighten their own belts.

SHERYL GOODMAN

Laguna Hills