ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : VOICES

Here is a sampling of comments Tuesday at the Board of Supervisors’ meeting about the proposed half-cent sales tax:

“I can see that more money is going to be needed, but if there is going to be any tax, they should tax all the commercial, agricultural and industrial real estate property. No more taxes on working people!”

--Jim Gibson

a graphic artist from Anaheim

“I urge you to take leadership and bite the bullet and put a tax on the ballot . . . and to campaign for the tax.”

--Angela J. Keefe

president of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union, Local 681, AFL-CIO

“It really doesn’t matter what the supervisors do--whether they vote for a tax or against one. They’ve already shown that they’ve done a lousy job and that they’re incompetent.”

--Maury Abram

a retired mortgage broker from Anaheim

“The league thinks it’s time for you to provide leadership. And if in four months you and all the advisers and counselors can’t think of anything else, then it’s time to accept reality.”

--Connie Haddad

president of the League of Women Voters of Orange County

“I want the supervisors to know that if people really know what (county Chief Executive Officer William J.) Popejoy was talking about that they would be convinced to vote “yes” on this tax. I think the people of Orange County are good people. I don’t think they know all the issues.”

--Jean Forbath

community activist

“Don’t do this. . . . You have no idea how determined we taxpayers are to take back our county.”

--Bill Ward

Committees of Correspondence

“We find it incredible that the county is considering putting a half-cent sales tax to voters prior to looking at how much money is going to illegal aliens.”

--Barbara Coe

California Committee for Immigration Reform

“Everybody abhors a tax, but we’ve got to swallow it. We’ve got to do it for our children.”

--Robert Stewart

member of the board of trustees of Anaheim Union High School District

“Some people here, for example Committees for Correspondence, all of a sudden think I’ve become a big tax man. I did not. I loathe taxes.”

--William J. Popejoy

county Chief Executive Officer

“The public is not convinced, and I don’t think all of us inside are convinced, that every single stone has been turned up.”

--Supervisor Roger R. Stanton

before voting on the proposal