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BUCKS FOR BANGS: Orange County ranked third...

By Lisa Mascaro and Elena Brunet
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BUCKS FOR BANGS: Orange County ranked third among the state’s larger counties in defense spending in 1989, with $2.9 billion, behind Los Angeles ($11.7 billion) and Santa Clara ($4.3 billion). . . . But when it came to per capita spending, the Big Orange dropped to fourth, outdistanced by Santa Clara, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Major defense spending categories are procurement, especially of planes, operations and maintenance, and research and development. Salaries finish fourth. . . . These figures do not include spending on classified projects, about which the Pentagon keeps its lips sealed.

Aircraft and Armaments

Top defense contractors in Orange County, 1989 (in millions of dollars):

Ford Motor Co.: 106.5

McDonnell Douglas Corp.: 649.4

Rockwell: 735.4

Hughes Aircraft: 764.5

Source: DRI/McGraw Hill

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Lisa Mascaro

Lisa Mascaro previously covered Congress in Washington, D.C., for the Los Angeles Times. She left in February 2018. A Los Angeles-area native, she has reported across Southern California, edited, traveled the States and worked in Texas. While the Washington correspondent for the Las Vegas Sun, she contributed as the paper won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. An economics and political science graduate of UC Santa Barbara, she also studied in Budapest, Hungary.

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