Emotions Run High on Both Sides of the Sales Tax Issue

Re: “No Fallback Plan if Tax Vote Fails” (April 18):

While pushing for a sales tax increase as the only solution to the county’s financial crisis, (county CEO) William Popejoy is quoted as saying, “Right now it would be intellectually dishonest to say that we have viable options.” This distorts the truth. Genuine honesty demands the admission that he and county supervisors have never seriously considered anything but a sales tax.

If Potentate Pojo and his cabal of cerebral wizards were ever concerned with enhancing their intellect, they might have considered viable options such as these: a special tax assessment on commercial, industrial, and agricultural property; a surtax on the receipts of entertainment parks and facilities; a surtax on incomes over $100,000; a luxury surtax on ostentatious purchases such as jewelry, furs, yachts, etc.

These proposals are offered merely to suggest how the burden of responsibility for Orange County’s bankruptcy might more justly be applied.

There are many similar, viable solutions which they could also have considered but have had no time for. After all, thinking about those would entail entertaining the idea of taxing the rich, and everybody in Orange County knows that that’s a subject which we are not permitted to discuss. Besides, conspiring with wealthy Orange County business leaders and Wall Street power mongers takes most of their time and it is hard work trying to bully voters into accepting the terms they want. Their plan is to make working people, who can least afford more taxes, pay for their crimes.

Why not vote no on Measure R and tax them instead?

JIM GIBSON

Chairperson, The People’s Response

San Clemente

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The power brokers are now discussing with the civic leaders the imposition of additional taxes on the citizens of Orange County. The argument that is being advanced is that there is no alternative. The county government and programs are too important not to be funded by new taxes. Besides, it is everyone’s fault that the treasury was squandered in bad investments.

Baloney!

Until government is pared to a reasonably workable size, until the payroll is pared to a realistic level, until staffing is pared to the same lean, efficient levels as most of private industry, no new taxes should be authorized. If the current county officials cannot live with this, they can resign.

ROYAL W. CHERRY JR.

San Clemente

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Glad to hear of the bipartisan support forming to help support Measure R, so all of us here in Orange County can recover and move forward.

Suggested motto: “Orange County ‘R’ Us”!

BONNIE B. HANSON

Santa Ana

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Orange County Republicans can finally breathe a sigh of relief--their local party leadership has decided to oppose Measure R.

But several questions remain unanswered.

Where was the GOP Central Committee’s leadership when the Orange County supervisors voted to place the tax increase on the ballot? Why were there no reports of GOP Central Committee members publicly encouraging the Orange County supervisors not to put Measure R on the ballot?

Why did it take so long for the GOP Central Committee to announce (its) opposition to a tax increase? Their months of silence lead one to believe that they were waiting to gauge public opinion before they made a decision.

So much for principled leadership!

GEOFFREY BRAUN

Chairman, O.C. Central Committee

The Libertarian Party of California

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Mr. (Donald) Bren backs a tax hike by saying that “there is no quick, easy, painless solution to the crisis.”

But Mr. Bren will brush away a half-cent sales tax hike like brushing a speck of lint off his suit.

Could there be instead another solution whereas Orange County residents get taxed on a scale proportionate to their income, getting larger--no, very steep--at the top?

Why should the people who can least afford it always be the ones to suffer?

L. HENDERSON

Laguna Niguel

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Re: “It Is Supervisors’ Job To Sell Tax to Public” (April 16).

It is disheartening that the supervisors are unwilling to put aside their political interests and endorse Measure R. We shouldn’t have to pay for county officials’ ineptitude; however, the state treasury and Wall Street are unwilling to help if we don’t show some good faith by implementing Measure R.

This measure is in the county’s best long-term interests. It will generate revenue from anybody who spends money in Orange County. Sales tax opponents fail to realize tourists spend $6.7 billion annually in Orange County.

Alternative proposals make small gains and carry negative consequences. Selling landfills and other county property hardly makes up for the $1.7-billion loss, and privatization will increase costs for similar services. The last alternative is to do nothing and watch educational and public service cuts diminish the quality of life in Orange County.

ANGELA H. CHEN

Foothill Ranch

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The financial crisis in Orange County was brought on by the failure of the county supervisors to responsibly fulfill their fiscal duties. They were shortsighted, misguided and uninformed. However, as citizens of Orange County, we cannot, much as we might like to, “punish” the supervisors for their transgressions by letting our need for revenge sabotage our best interests. Such a stance will only punish us, the citizens of Orange County.

The reality is we are in this mess, no matter whose fault it is, and we must as a citizenry work together, not look back, and pass the half-cent sales tax on June 27. We owe it to our futures, and particularly to the future of our children. Let’s not let the short-term satisfaction of punishing the perceived wrongdoers create long-term punishment for the citizens of Orange County. We can “punish” the perpetrators at the polls.

JOANNA RONCAGLIA

Irvine

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Who, or what, is Orange County?

Is it not we who are the constituent citizens of this great political subdivision? We ourselves make it what it is and should accept responsibility for the crisis we face. Why should we look for some benefactor to bail us out?

Sooner or later we must “bite the bullet,” so to speak, and look to our own resources to revitalize our financial stability. After all, did we not vote last June to reelect Robert Citron and give tacit approval to the practices he was following?

None of us likes tax increases, but an added half-cent sales tax at least has the advantage that multitudes of tourists and visitors will help with the tab. We should give strong support to William Popejoy’s sales tax plan.

WALLACE E. WOODS

Laguna Hills

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The Times article of April 14 that describes the makeup of Sheriff Brad Gates’ 14-member posse that is promoting the half-cent sales tax increase on the June 27 ballot reveals the motivation and mentality of the promoters of Measure R. The Gates team consists almost entirely of developers, bureaucrats and labor unions--all tax-takers!

The opposing 21-man Committees of Correspondence War Council that has assembled to promote NO on Measure R consists entirely of grass-roots citizens from all walks of life--all taxpayers!

The motivation of the Gates team is greed. They want more of our tax money to continue their lavish lifestyles. The Committees of Correspondence has the same motivation as the Committees of Correspondence of our Founding Fathers who fought valiantly against an oppressive government during the Revolutionary War.

When you vote on June 27, vote NO on Measure R. This will be a vote for patriotism instead of a vote for greed.

Read the ballot arguments carefully. The Committees’ argument is professional and hard-hitting. The Gates argument is amateurish and inaccurate. It is a baldfaced lie that 2,000 schoolteachers will be laid off. The only school districts that may have problems are the ones that borrowed to gamble, and the state will help them if necessary.

BILL MELLO

The Committees of Correspondence

Huntington Beach