Supervisors Win One for the Taxpayers : * Some Property Owners to Get a Break, Thanks to the Success of Overtaxed Board

These are tough times for Orange County government, with the money dwindling and the demand for services growing. Supervisors must try to resolve personnel problems, get department heads to cooperate and still remember the people they serve, 2.5 million county residents.

One recent notable success of the Board of Supervisors was the decision to make it easier for property taxpayers to get a reduction of their taxes.

Those who bought property a few years ago, at what turned out to be the top of the market, too often have seen the state-allowed 2% increase tacked on to their property bills each year. Actually, if their homes decreased in value, they were entitled to a tax cut, not a hike.

Those who didn’t get a reduction could appeal. But not all property owners were aware of that right, and Assessor Bradley L. Jacobs was more reluctant than his colleagues in neighboring counties to advise them it existed.

Yet even for those who did appeal, the backlog kept growing. Jacobs said his office was properly cautious in examining each appeal. A tax cut does reduce county revenue, but by this month the backlog was so bad it would have taken three years to clear; state law demands it be cleared in two years.

The supervisors properly voted to spend nearly $400,000 to hire about a dozen temporary employees to speed up processing; the two existing appeals boards will grow to three, will hold regular meetings and will put in a full day’s work, not just a few hours.

The reforms are overdue, but the process showed some of the handicaps burdening the supervisors. They faced an entirely different set of problems with the investigation of County Recorder Lee Branch on charges of sexual harassment and physical abuse of employees in his office. Branch denied the charges, but they have been a distraction for the supervisors. Both Jacobs and Branch are elected officials, answerable only to the voters. The board’s only control is over budgets, but it must exercise the jurisdiction it has in ways that don’t harm service to the public.

Next year’s budget battles may be worse than this year’s, with the county wrestling the state for funds. The supervisors will have to rank problems and, as in the case of the assessor’s office, make use of what authority they have. That focus will be needed as the supervisors juggle competing demands for funds to be spent on public safety, health and welfare; fight money-draining incorporations; and grapple with problems like jail overcrowding.