ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Not Just Another Day at Tax Collector’s Office : Reaction: Property owners grumble and vent anger at the situation in Orange County. But they are also resigned to paying their debt despite the debacle.

No clenching of fists, no stomping of feet, no rending of garments. Only the soft, steady tearing of checks from checkbooks was heard at the Orange County tax collector’s office, where miffed taxpayers said they were making the best protest available to them--holding out on the county until about the last possible minute.

That final moment comes today at 5 p.m., the deadline for the first installment of yearly property taxes. Thereafter, taxpayers face a 10% penalty--a fairly rigid posture, some grumble, for a government not able to pay its own bills on time.

“They had to be paid,” said Jan Whitman, a Newport Beach homeowner who was at the tax office Friday afternoon and who has been chipping into the community pot for seven years. “I didn’t feel that I have any right at this point in time to make a political statement by not paying my taxes.”

Each year, property taxes are due Dec. 10. But Whitman and many others assumed--incorrectly--that with the 10th falling on the weekend and the county filing for bankruptcy, the deadline would be moved back to Friday.

Those protesting or procrastinating taxpayers who flocked to the Santa Ana Civic Center to render unto Caesar were resigned--and also resentful--about paying tribute.

Signs of unease were everywhere. From the overflowing suggestion box--more stuffed than a Christmas turkey--to the armed guard, stationed behind the cashiers after a threat was lodged last week. The mood was tense, even for a tax collection agency.

“It smells like the dentist’s office,” Mike Morrees said to his buddy as they walked in during the lunch-hour rush. In fact, many people seemed to be wearing a ready-for-root-canal grimace.

“I think it’s horrible that it was such a gross mismanagement of funds,” said David Obrand, 24, of Laguna Beach. Making his first-ever property tax payment, he marveled that a young man should be able to manage money when a corps of people his father’s age can’t.

“From at least my understanding, there was such a lack of diversity in the portfolio,” said Obrand, a graduate of Claremont McKenna College. “I think this is just mismanagement.”

But like almost everyone else who came to the counter Friday, he was not throwing a tantrum or scowling at the cashiers.

“I had to pay it anyway,” he said. “So whether or not they go bankrupt doesn’t matter.”

Then there was Ray Hudson, an Anaheim entrepreneur who urged others to put the county’s predicament into perspective.

Indeed, he said he did not mind giving Orange County $230 in taxes on his little house because he believes the county to be quite vibrant financially. The county still has billions in its portfolio, he noted, a sum he considers ungodly.

To illustrate this notion, Hudson said a million seconds computes to about 12 days, whereas a billion seconds equals about 33 years.

“People in the media,” he said, laughing, “they tend to look at the negative side of things.”

Another interesting perspective on the day was offered by Steve Winston, a traffic officer in the Santa Ana Police Department who arrived at the collector’s office in full uniform, including his dark, Darth Vader sunglasses and enormous motorcycle helmet.

“It’s kind of like people feel about tickets,” he said.

Death, taxes “and someday getting a ticket from me,” he said--these are the verities of life. “I look at it like it’s just one of those things you have to go through.”