ORANGE COUNTY VOICES : Cut Out the Fat, Sure, But Not the Heart : Crisis: Despite the recent rhetoric, our county government is actually less burdensome to citizens than most.

During the past weeks the newspapers and airwaves have been filled with allegations about the amount of “fat” in county government. County government is too big, people say. It’s grown too much. We have too many county employees. Most important, because our tax burden is said to be too heavy, our supervisors will not even consider a tax hike to help resolve the bankruptcy crisis, even though that’s what Wall street experts say we need to do in order to return to the municipal bond market.

County government has grown in the past ten years. In 1985 there were 11,663 county employees. By 1995 this figure grew to 16,984, or 46%. During the same time period, however, the gross county product--the total value of the goods and services produced in Orange County--grew from $47.7 billion to $81.8 billion, or 71%.

Government employees certainly did not produce this extraordinary increase in economic output, but it wouldn’t have been achieved without them: a vibrant economy requires well-maintained infrastructure; schools, legal system, and protection from natural disasters. The public sector also subsidizes the private sector by providing social services to people whose wages don’t pay them enough, but whose labor makes our prosperity possible.

Another way to look at the size of county government is to compare it with the other 57 California counties. The newly published County and City Data Book for 1994 shows the revenue raised by county government per $1,000 of personal income during the year 1986-1987, the last year for which data were available. When the counties are ranked from highest to lowest, Orange ranks 56th. That is, Orange came in almost last in terms of the amount of money the county government took from its residents. Likewise, when we rank the counties based on the number of government employees per number of residents Orange County ranks 57th. Finally, when we rank the counties in terms of spending per resident Orange County ranks 53rd.

The data suggest, then, that the number of county employees isn’t excessive; that our local tax burden isn’t unduly burdensome, particularly for those at the upper end of the income scale, and that we do not provide an unusually high level of public services in comparison to other county governments, and in respect to the size of our economy.

In the long term we need to be eternally vigilant in rooting out fat in government. At the same time, however, we must recognize that there are things a civilized society desires that the market cannot provide, including legal defense for the poor and quality education for all citizens.

And that there are things that the market produces, such as pollution and harmful products, that a civilized society cannot abide.

Right now, however, the true crisis is a failure of political will and a refusal to admit to unpleasant realities.

The supervisors denied that anything was wrong with our county fund. Now they deny that a temporary tax increase is necessary to prevent further damage. Their denial is reinforced by those who see the crisis as a golden opportunity to fire people, privatize services, and sell off county properties--in short, cripple the public sector.

Let us also remember that the residents of Kobe, Japan looked to the government, not the private sector, for help in the aftermath of their earthquake. When our quake comes, we may regret the cuts that have been made and the additional cuts that have been proposed.