O.C. Safety Officials Warn of Dire Consequences If Sales Tax Falls

A Nov. 2 refusal by voters to continue the half-cent sales tax would pull the fiscal rug out from under Orange County public safety agencies, closing off an annual $137-million funding source that accounts for 30% of the county’s general purpose revenues, officials said.

The James A. Musick jail facility would close, deputies and prosecutors would be laid off and the most basic public safety services would suffer if voters statewide turn their back on Proposition 172, county officials said.

And although the loss of sales tax revenue would pull directly from public safety agencies, such as law enforcement and the district attorney’s office, the resulting budget scramble to patch those losses could require 20% to 30% across-the-board cuts in other county agencies.

County services as varied as fire protection and mental-health programs would likely feel the budget ripples, officials said. “The effects could potentially be felt throughout the rest of the county family,” county senior analyst Pam Leaning said.

If the half-cent sales tax is defeated, sales tax in Orange County would dip from 7.75 cents on every dollar to 7.25 cents.

Among the likely results should voters opt not to continue the surcharge, which is now scheduled to expire in January:

* For the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, 200 deputies would be laid off, a 20% reduction of the department’s patrol areas and the closing of two jails, Sheriff Brad Gates said.

“That would put 2,500 criminals out on the street, and we’re already turning loose 800 prisoners a week because we don’t have enough beds,” Gates said. “It’s going to mean dire straits for the people of this county and for the people of this state if it fails. The criminals will own the streets.”

Sales tax accounts for about 90% of Gates’ $163-million annual operation.

* District attorney’s office staffing would be even harder hit than the Sheriff’s Department, with likely layoffs of professional staff reaching 45%, Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi said.

“We don’t have put together a plan of what would be discontinued if it that happens, but I can state, unequivocally, that it would be devastating to our operations as we know them today,” Capizzi said.

If the sales tax stream dried up, Capizzi’s office could expect, at the very least, a 25% cut in funds. “And that’s the most optimistic projection,” he said. “Devastating, that’s the only word for it.”

* For the Orange County Fire Department, Chief Larry J. Holms said he could not immediately specify the cutbacks that would be necessary. But he described the effects on the department’s service, with likely firefighter layoffs, as deep and painful.

“It’s important for voters to know what’s at stake here. This isn’t just a cry of wolf by government,” Holms said. “It’s not a case of holding up public safety and saying it will be cut just to get an emotional response.”

While many California counties designated fire service as a public safety agency, making them eligible for the sales tax funds, Orange County did not. As a result, the Fire Department will not suffer a direct revenue loss with a repeal of the sales tax, but it would suffer in the ensuing budget slashing that would be needed to fill the void left by the surcharge’s absence, Holms said.

“This is real,” Holms said. “There’s no other place for this money to come from, at least there’s none in sight now. This is, by far, the most serious circumstance that I have ever seen facing government in the area of providing essential services.”

* The Health Care Agency, although not directly affected, would also be among the county agencies in line to help bear the brunt of the losses. Agency Director Tom Uram said those types of “mammoth” cutbacks are a chilling prospect for his programs, which are often most needed when times are tough.

The agency’s mental-health programs, which have been enhanced in recent years and boast service levels above the mandatory limits set by law, would be the most likely targets, Uram said. But while those service margins make those programs the most likely budget target, the bleak economy also make them among the most needed community services.

“They would be very, very painful moves,” Uram said. “As times get tougher, our services are needed the most. . . . They would be Draconian-style cuts, and they would really affect us on a basic service level. I’m not trying to scare anybody, but those are the facts.”

Much of the county’s budget woes, and the high priorities set on the sales-tax money, can be traced to the state-mandated shift earlier this year of $2.6 billion in property tax revenues from local governments to school districts.

Despite the chorus of grim predictions, Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach), one of state’s leading opponents of the tax extension, said Gates and county bureaucrats are “simply not being honest with people.”

Already, Ferguson said, Orange County ranks as perhaps the most revenue-rich county government--with its recently approved $3.6-billion budget--of its kind in the nation.

“I’m not going to stick it to the taxpayer knowing that all the money is not going to pay for more law and order,” Ferguson said. “They (local government officials) are going to find some other way to spend that money, whether it’s to fund more paper-shuffling or the zillion other things the county does with its money.”

Even if Orange County residents reject the ballot measure, the county would still retain sales tax funding at its current level provided the tax extension passes statewide. Likewise, a statewide loss would negate a local victory.

Proposition 172, which will appear on the ballot as the Local Public Safety Protection and Improvement Act, would permanently extend an existing half-cent sales that was added in 1991 and billed, at the time, as a temporary move. The surcharge was scheduled to expire in June but Gov. Pete Wilson agreed to extend it through January and put the issue on the special election’s ballot in November.

Times staff writer Kevin Johnson contributed to this story.