Rebate Debate: Resolve Sorely Tested in Mission Viejo

“Honey, how would you like a nice big hot fudge sundae, with lots of whipped cream and a cherry?”

Not many parents wouldn’t want to whisper that in the ear of their children, if only to feel the warmth of their hugs and watch their eyes brim over with teary gratitude. It’s the exceptional parent who knows that hot fudge is not necessarily good for Junior.

City councils are a lot like parents, which is why officials were stumbling all over themselves in Mission Viejo right before Christmas.

The city has a budget surplus, and City Councilman William S. Craycraft called a press conference on Christmas Eve to announce a $500-rebate plan to homeowners. There were no strings--they wouldn’t even have to buy an American car to get the cash.

Immediately, the city’s four other council members initially endorsed the rebate concept, although they were miffed at Craycraft for taking credit for an idea they said had been in the works for months. Assemblyman Mickey Conroy of Santa Ana even dropped in at the press conference to grab some reflected glory, prompting Mission Viejo Councilman A. Robert Curtis to call him “an irresponsible and stupid idiot.”

Curtis said the rebate idea was his, but not of the size that Craycraft proposed. Since then, rebate projections have come in all shapes and sizes.

That’s all history. Now that the Christmas egg nog has worn off, the talk is a little more sober.

You’ve got to remember, Mission Viejo is one of the newer kids on the Orange County block, and it showed up with a lot of money. But you know the problem with impetuous rich kids--how do you teach them the value of a buck?

“If you offer a kid a dime today or a quarter tomorrow, he’ll take the dime today,” says an official in another Orange County city.

Indeed. So how do you persuade a kid to put his money in the piggy bank instead of blowing it on a monthlong binge of hot fudge sundaes? And if you don’t give the kid the money, will he hate you for it?

You could start with the argument, an official in another Orange County city says, that current Mission Viejo residents aren’t even largely responsible for the surplus. A person’s property taxes don’t yield that much to city government. And the sales tax revenue--which is a large source of any city’s cash--is supplied by a wide variety of residents and non-residents.

So whose rebate is it, anyway?

And then there’s the long-term argument. “How much is enough to have in the bag for a rainy day?” the official said. “How much should a city have in reserve to bail out or build new city facilities or for new infrastructures for development?”

He cited Cerritos in Los Angeles County, which had a huge budget surplus and committed it to help build a performing arts center--something that will last long after the last rebate dollar would have been spent.

“If I were sitting in my home I’d probably want the refund and be grateful to get it,” said an official in a third Orange County city. “But sitting here at my desk in a governmental agency, I’d have a tendency to say, ‘Hey, keep it because you know we’re going to need it back, and you’re going to come after me next time for a thousand and you just gave me five hundred back.’ ”

“The notion that a rebate is going to improve the Mission Viejo economy is nonsense,” one of the officials said. “They’d be better off building things they know they’re going to need, at today’s dollars, rather than giving it back. That $200 (one of the projected rebate amounts) is not going to materially affect their lives, but a major city improvement might.”

His compatriot in another city agreed. “If Mission Viejo had some identifiable population in their community that, for example, was unduly impacted by the recession and they gave money for some particular social service to help them through, no problem. But because there’s a lot of money there to make the assumption that there’s too much money, let’s give some back . . . to me the logic doesn’t flow.”

It would make more sense, he said, to use the money to reduce existing rates or fee schedules or to use the money to buy out special assessment districts.

Hey, Mission Viejo, it’s only advice. But it’s free and it’s from your elder brethren who have been around the block a time or two.

“It’s a simple choice,” one of them said, “but they’ve got to really understand what the long-term consequences are. The only difference between Stanton and Irvine is 20 years,” he said, referring to the need over time for cities to repair roads, sewers and make numerous other improvements.

Decisions, decisions.

All little kids have trouble imagining being a grown-up, but the hard realities of municipal life will inevitably visit Mission Viejo.

In the weeks ahead, Mission Viejo citizens will decide. They’ll tell the council that they’ve listened to their older siblings and that they’ve decided to accept their advice.

Either that, or they’ll tell the council to start whipping up those sundaes.