ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : O.C. Hard for State to Figure Out : Finances: Legislative committee asks Auditor Sjoberg to assess recovery plans and impact if Measure R is rejected, but concedes situation is so complicated it defies traditional audit.

A legislative committee on Tuesday asked state Auditor Kurt Sjoberg to determine if a review of Orange County’s bankruptcy recovery plans is in order and what the fallout might be should county voters reject a half-cent sales tax hike.

The Joint Legislative Audit Committee, which agreed to give Sjoberg a week to look into things, expressed concern that the county’s plan is so couched in uncertainty--most notably the outcome of the June 27 special election on a sales tax increase--that it may defy a traditional audit.

After the committee session, Sjoberg said he harbored doubts that he would be able to resolve one of the most worrisome questions revolving around the Orange County debacle--what impact a financial meltdown by the county would have on the rest of the state.

“Our work is grounded in fact, and we aren’t going to speculate,” said Sjoberg, who has produced a much-lauded series of reports in recent months on the county’s finances. He plans to dispatch three or four staff members to Orange County next week.

In a report to the committee on the proposed audit, Sjoberg said elements of the county’s restructuring plan were “very complex and somewhat interdependent,” with the various components “based on a large number of assumptions and conditions that, if changed, could affect the viability of the plan.”

In addition to the proposed sales tax, the county’s recovery plan is also heavily reliant on proposals to increase revenue by raising garbage fees and inviting nearby counties to send their trash to Orange County landfills, to generate cash with the sale of county property, and do a better job of collecting delinquent property taxes and penalties.

The two lawmakers who requested the audit--Sens. William A. Craven (R-Oceanside) and Lucy Killea (I-San Diego), co-chairs of a special Senate committee on the bankruptcy--said they expect Sjoberg’s team will spend much longer than a week in the county, and produce a report that will help frame the ongoing legislative debate.

“Right now, we don’t have an objective source of information and we need it,” Killea said. “I think it’ll be helpful. . . . We can get something that is a good guide for the Legislature.”

In particular, a report from Sjoberg could do much to keep debate focused on the facts of the situation, and to minimize the political sniping, as the legislative wrangling moves in earnest this month to the Assembly, where Speaker Willie Brown and other Democrats have shown little sympathy for the county’s plight.

“I think Kurt Sjoberg carries a great deal of weight,” said Scott Johnson, Craven’s chief of staff. “I think everyone respects the quality of the reports he produces. I think they understand its not political, he has no ax to grind and he’d be looking at it from the state perspective.”

Sen. Ken Maddy, the Republican Senate leader from Fresno and a member of the audit committee, said he agrees that a default by Orange County on $1.275 billion in debt this summer “would have serious consequences” for the state.

Even so, some lawmakers could remain a hard sell. Maddy said he raised the issue of a fiscal meltdown by Orange County during recent closed-door caucus meetings, but some of his fellow Republicans balked at the notion it would tarnish the credit ratings of other California municipalities and thus drive up the entire state’s costs of borrowing.