Big Business Lends a Hand to Measure M

A last-minute infusion of donations this month from some of Orange County’s biggest developers and business interests helped to nearly quadruple funds for Measure M, the county’s proposed sales tax increase for transportation, to almost $900,000, reports released Friday show.

But the surge still left the campaign for Measure M with only about half as much money as was raised last year by the pro-M camp in what was a losing effort to get local voters to approve a similar half-cent sales tax increase for large-scale transportation projects.

Cash was in such short supply this month at the Citizens for Yes on Revised Measure M campaign that coordinators were prompted to borrow $250,000--a loan guaranteed by the Irvine Co. and Disneyland, officials said.

Measure M opponents are so confident of Orange County’s anti-tax reputation that they say they have raised no campaign funds. They see the $250,000 loan as a sign of desperate times among the opposition.

“They’re in deep trouble,” said Russell Burkett of San Juan Capistrano, an organizer of the anti-M campaign. “The exciting part is that they’ve only raised $600,000 (in contributions). That’s a drop in the bucket for them. These are people who literally can raise millions.”

According to the latest campaign finance report, the pro-Measure M campaign raised $397,000 in the first three weeks of this month, bringing total contributions to $621,566. The $250,000 loan and late donations boost the campaign war chest to about $898,000, as of Oct. 25, or about four times the $225,000 in contributions through the previous reporting period ending Sept. 30.

By comparison, the pro-Measure M campaign had nearly $1.8 million this time a year ago.

“Every sign says that they’re getting the cold shoulder in raising money,” Burkett said. “The business community looks at this thing (Measure M) as a dead horse, and they’re back to a bare-bones campaign. We plan to beat them with our hands tied behind our backs.”

Burkett and local analysts said they believe current economic trends may work against Measure M. The surge in oil prices caused by the Persian Gulf crisis, the recently imposed statewide gas tax and the uncertain state of the U.S. economy as a whole may make voters wary of taking on yet another expense in the form of a tax increase.

Measure M would raise the county sales tax by a half-cent and use the money--expected to reach $3.1 billion over 20 years--to pay for a range of transportation improvements.

Jolted by the defeat of Measure M in 1989 by a tally of 53% to 47%, backers of the sales tax increase pledged a more modest campaign this time around.

The current effort, pro-Measure M chairman Reed Royalty said in an interview Friday, is not designed to be “a slick, high-pressure, high-visibility campaign . . . filled with slogans and fancy flyers.” As a result, he said, campaign organizers never set out to raise as much money as they did in 1989 for Measure M--a record $2.587 million.

Leading off the list of contributors in the latest campaign finance report were: Fund for Construction Industry Advancement, $50,000; the William Lyon Co., $30,000; Woodcrest Development Inc., $30,000; Arvida/JMB Partners, $25,000; Niguel Development Co. $25,000; Issues Mobilization PAC $20,000; A-M Homes, $10,000; Hughes Aircraft, $10,000; Kaufman and Broad, $10,000, and Taylor Woodrow Homes, $10,000.

But the two most important contributors--indirect though they were--were also two of the most familiar. At the request of Measure M organizers, Disneyland and the Irvine Co. agreed to split the potential risk of guaranteeing the $250,000 loan to cover immediate costs.

In an interview, Disneyland president Jack Lindquist acknowledged that tight fiscal times at the Measure M camp prompted his company--which had already given $25,000 to the campaign earlier--to back the loan.

“The money was coming in fast, but not fast enough to meet the (campaign’s) needs--to make mailings, to print materials, to get it out,” he said. “I wouldn’t call the situation critical, but there was a need to keep (the campaign) rolling.”

Measure M organizers said they are confident that they will be able to raise enough money between now and the Nov. 6 election to repay the loan. And despite the portrayal of Measure M by its detractors as a pro-business boondoggle, they said they will gladly take the money from developers until then.

“I’m very pleased that some of the developers have come forth,” Royalty said. “I’ve asked them to, and they’ve responded.

“Some people are critical of those contributions, but I’m not because I look around the county and I see that most worthwhile civic projects are heavily supported by developers--the Performing Arts Center, the Orangewood Children’s Foundation, Chapman College, UC Irvine . . . that’s nothing to be ashamed of.”