COUNTYWIDE : Rebuttals Filed for Measure J Initiative

With each side in the Measure J fight accusing the other of untruths, rebuttals to sample ballot arguments filed Monday indicate that the campaigns for and against the May 14, half-cent sales tax referendum will hinge on what the two sides believe voters fear most: higher taxes and higher crime.

“Measure J cannot build a billion-dollar jail that costs $340 million to operate. . . . They lied. Vote No,” reads the opposition’s rebuttal argument.

“Even opponents agree we need a new jail,” the rebuttal in favor of the measure states. “But because they don’t want the jail in their back yards, they are raising phony arguments against Measure J. Even if it means endangering the safety of others.”

The latest arguments for the sample ballot are rebuttals to the direct arguments that were filed for and against Measure J 10 days ago.

If it is successful, Measure J, sponsored by an independent county commission, will increase the county’s sales tax by half a cent to raise money for new regional justice facilities.

Its main supporters, led by Sheriff Brad Gates, want the money to be used to build a new jail in Gypsum Canyon, about 10 miles east of downtown Anaheim, but much closer to the communities of Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda, where it faces vehement opposition.

Opponents said in their rebuttal arguments that supporters of the measure have not done their homework and do not know exactly how much the tax would raise over its 30-year life. First-year revenues, which they maintain will be about $155 million, are “not enough money for the land, construction and operation of a 6,700-bed jail.”

Eileen Padberg, a consultant working for the pro-Measure J Committee to Keep Criminals in Jail, said the money raised by the referendum would be used only for the construction and operation of the jail, and not for purchase of the land.

In their ballot rebuttal, the pro-Measure J forces say that jail overcrowding has led to the release of 850 criminals per week.

The argument cites the example of a man who robbed and assaulted a young woman who had to be hospitalized for her injuries. The man had been released from jail early “to make room for a ‘more dangerous’ criminal,” the rebuttal argument said.