County Democratic Committee Backs Measure R : Sales tax: Vote is 21 to 8. But 11 abstain, prompting an anti-tax figure to say the party endorsement lacks punch.

The Democratic Central Committee of Orange County has voted to endorse Measure R, despite objection to the half--cent sales tax proposal by the committee’s chairman.

The executive board of the 40-member group will meet early in June to decide whether to couple its endorsement with a cash contribution to the election campaign for the ballot measure.

The vote for Measure R was 21 to 8, with 11 declaring that the political organization should take no position on the hotly contested question, which goes before the voters June 27.

Only the labor contingent on the committee unanimously favored Measure R, while environmentalist, blue collar, professional and lawyer representatives split during the debate that lasted about two hours, according to several who attended the Monday night meeting at the Carpenters Hall in Orange.

“We felt it was the proper course,” said Ray Cordova of Garden Grove, regional director of the California Democratic Party, who authored the resolution that was approved by the committee.

“We are concerned about cuts in services for children, prenatal care, schools,” he said Wednesday. “That is our future. It is the responsible thing to bail the county out even though it is a regressive tax.”

Committee Chairman Jim Toledano argued that the county has not been honest in saying the sales tax and the accompanying recovery measures together are the only viable way out of the bankruptcy.

“The divide was did you believe the sales tax was the only alternative and whether you believed that the money would end up in the hands of county workers, teachers and school kids--the vulnerable,” Toledano said in an interview Wednesday. “That side chose to believe it and the other side chose not to believe it. It is as simple as that.”

Toledano said the revenue from the sales tax, which would phase out in 10 years, “is going to deal with the bonds that are coming due” this summer.

Mark Thompson, the coordinator of Citizens Against the Tax Increase--the business and Republican coalition group opposing the tax--said the split vote shows that “the Democrats won’t be full-hearted behind the tax.”

This endorsement doesn’t provide “much power for the punch when they are that divided,” he said, adding that the unions already were independently backing the tax, so all the tax proponents “are getting is the name and no additional tactical support.”

The session Monday drew a healthy turnout.

Before the secret ballot, the 80 people assembled at the union hall heard arguments for both sides of the sales-tax issue, as well as opinions that the Democratic committee should not take a stand on the issue. In addition to the committee members, about 40 others attended, including alternates and representatives from local Democratic clubs around the county.

Dorianne Garcia, a former chairwoman of the county Democrats and executive vice president of Communications Workers, Local 9510, said the county needs to be sure that those least responsible for the county’s bankruptcy--including children and the workers--are not made to pay the price for others’ mistakes.

She said the only credible argument against the tax was that its proceeds were not earmarked toward the most vulnerable.

“No matter whose fault this is, we have a bill to pay and we have to belly up to the bar, pay it and move forward,” she said. “The thing is that the [residents] who are going to get hurt are the people who can’t afford services. If you live in ritzy parts of the county and there is a problem that the county can’t take care of, you will be able to take care of it.”