Red Ink, Redcoats and Modern-Day Rebels With a Cause

Dry the powder and load the muskets. Break out the fifes and bugles. Dump Roger Stanton into Newport Bay.

That’s not spring fever you’re feeling this morning. It’s revolutionary zeal!

On the off chance there isn’t enough strife in your life, prepare to take sides in the impending War of the Half-Penny. Never will so much be said by so many over so little.

Now that the Board of Supervisors has voted 5 to 0 to put the sales tax increase to a vote, the battle is joined. And although the calendar says 1995, the rhetoric over the next three months is going to sound more like 1775.

You’ve probably already heard about the Committees of Correspondence (egad, perhaps you’re on one!). They’re a group of anti-tax, down-on-government folks who can’t wait to turn this sales tax campaign into The Battle of Bunker Hill II.

They’re a colorful lot--a mix of professionals and laborers, employed and unemployed, young and old--but united in their unhappiness in never having been able to fire off a round at a redcoat.

Now they see their chance, and they’re not going to pass it up.

Just as the American Revolution pitted Colonial farmers and workers against the British royalty, so do our modern-day antagonists see themselves as the common folk fighting the patricians of Newport Beach and the Irvine Spectrum. For their purposes, the board couldn’t have picked a better chief executive officer than William Popejoy, who’s not only from Newport Beach but also looks like he could have been King George in another lifetime.

Have no doubt, these next three months will be filled with the language of Colonial America. Count the number of times you hear the words, “tyranny,” “uprising” or “revolution.” You’ll hear James Madison quoted more often than you’d like, not to mention Benedict Arnold and Nathan Hale.

But where their descendants posted bills on tavern doors, the contemporary Committees of Correspondence send faxes and e-mail. That’s how we know that the committees will be meeting Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the city of Orange council chambers.

Here’s the agenda, with various “district captains” providing most of the commentary:

* “One-minute updates on supervisors’ performance.”

* “The Distribution of Political Power in Orange County.”

* “How Citizens Can Help Expose Political Corruption.”

* “Computer Bulletin Board Testing.”

* “Final votes on recalls. Candidates at this time are Auditor Steve Lewis and all supervisors.”

* “Public comments (three-minute maximum speeches).”

Then, they plan to do something the Colonists never considered: “Adjourn to Coco’s for further discussions.”

We kid, but of course there’s a serious side to all this.

This will be a pitched battle over the half-cent tax increase, fought more on philosophical grounds than on how much of a financial burden it will be.

The debate should center around what people want the county to look like a year or two from now. The tax-increase proponents say that the county will more closely resemble itself if the tax passes, in that bills will be paid and further drastic budget cuts can be kept in check.

So far, we haven’t heard what the Committees of Correspondence envision. They’re entitled to oppose a tax solely on philosophical grounds, but that’s getting off too easy. This isn’t the same as not supporting a tax on a new jail or a new highway project. People voting no on the tax increase have the civic duty to inform the rest of us on how the county will fare without it.

The supervisors have explained, at their great peril, why they think the tax is needed. Over the next three months, the opposition should explain why it is not.

Maybe it’s fun to put on a three-cornered hat and play revolutionary, but the American Revolution stood for something. It wasn’t a matter of saying no just to be saying no.

Fair questions to the Committees of Correspondence:

* Do you dispute that needed services from the county, cities and school districts will be severely affected without the additional tax revenue?

* Do you concede that additional revenue is needed, but that a tax isn’t the way to raise it?

* Give us your view as to what government (county, city, schools) should provide Orange County residents.

* How should the various entities repay their debts?

Without good answers to those questions, they’ll have to start the revolution without me.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.