ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : BOND TICKER : Anti-Tax Group Draws Own Conclusion: Usual Collusion

The Committees of Correspondence, a group monitoring the county’s financial crisis, has restated its opposition to the proposed half-cent sales tax increase in the form of a cartoon faxed to county officials Tuesday.

The cartoon depicts the Board of Supervisors taking a wad of cash from the back pocket of a man labeled “Taxpayer” and giving the money to another man labeled “Mr. Killjoy” (an apparent reference to county Chief Executive Officer William J. Popejoy). The cartoon shows “Mr. Killjoy” handing the cash to a heavyset man labeled “Tax-takers, Developers, Bureaucracy, Gamblers, Unions.”

The cartoon’s caption reads: “With the half-cent sales tax, we can get back to politics as usual.”

District Wants to Keep Land Sale Cash

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District is seeking state legislation that would allow the school system to use money from the sale of surplus property for operating expenses.

Officials said that if SB12 is approved, it will allow the district to use the $4.5 million it expects to receive from the sale of property on Bear Street to help dig out of its financial crisis. Under existing law, proceeds from property sales can be used only for capital projects.

“This bill lets us use our own resources to solve our own problems,” said Michael Fine, Newport-Mesa’s director of fiscal services.

Fine said the passage of SB12 is key to the district’s recovery plans. The district has already made $2 million in cuts, including layoffs and reductions in material purchases.

Compiled by SHELBY GRAD