Cities Should Bite the Bullet, Absorb Fees : * Jail-Booking Charge Would Help Hard-Pressed Orange County Meet Its Obligations

There was not much good news for Orange County--or any of California’s other counties--in last year’s state budget crisis. But one provision passed last fall in the final days of the legislative session allows counties to charge cities for certain services that they have been providing free.

That’s made the cities hopping mad. But numerous efforts to repeal these provisions before the Legislature this year should be rebuffed.

First, a little history. When the tax-cutting Proposition 13 was passed in 1978, all local government financing rules were changed. Proposition 13 froze property tax assessments and put the state in charge of how they were disbursed. Cities, which have much more independence, subsequently raised local fees and other taxes to make up these losses. Some of them also passed on certain expenses, such as emergency hospital services, to counties.

Meanwhile counties, which are essentially arms of the state, have been extremely restricted in their ability to raise revenue.

But that’s not all. While mandating counties to provide services such as health care and welfare, the state shortchanged them in paying for these services. Most were forced to make up the differences by cutting local services.

In many counties--including Orange--the problem has been exacerbated by annexations and incorporations that shifted sales-tax revenue to cities. As an indication of how bad things have gotten for counties, Butte County last year declared bankruptcy, sending shock waves up and down the state.

The Legislature’s last-minute decision in September to provide counties with the option to shift jail-booking fees and property tax administration costs to cities was an attempt to balance the playing field.

Cities, however, cried foul. For example, during an acrimonious debate over jail-booking fees at a recent meeting of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, one mayor pleaded with the board not to succumb to “predatory zeal.” It was difficult, but the board was right to go forward with the fee, which it set at $154 per booking. It wisely delayed imposition until July 1 in order to give cities a chance to adjust their budgets.

The League of California Cities will try to get the Legislature to repeal the fees, but their efforts should be resisted. Fine-tuning may be necessary, but the shift of these fees to cities marks a welcome attempt to help hard-pressed counties through difficult fiscal times. It is painful, but long overdue.