THE BOTTOM LINE ON MEASURE R : Voters Shouldn’t Refill the Coffers of Government

The defeat of Measure R is imminent. Thus, the spin doctors are in a rush to explain to themselves--and their constituencies--how this happened. The line that is emerging seems to be: “The electorate is so angry that we couldn’t reason with them. The electorate wants blood and resignations, and nothing short of a purge will satisfy them.”

This explanation is both false and profoundly elitist. The voters are very smart. They know this issue well, and they are not buying Measure R for very sound, very rational reasons.

Any loose talk about how angry they are implies that voters are emotional know-nothings; in short, a mob. Perhaps on June 28, the county’s decision-makers will wake up to this hard fact: The voters are not buying what the Pro-R forces are selling.

Specifically, the money lost in the collapse of the county’s investment pool was taxpayers’ money. Voters are asked via Measure R to tax themselves again to replace money already given over by them. And to do what? Largely to refill government coffers.

Here are the hard facts: If you vote Yes on Measure R, you are consenting to tax yourself $225 million for the coffers of the Orange County Transportation Authority. You are agreeing to tax yourself $92 million for the Orange County Sanitation Districts. And you are saying OK to being taxed $62 million for the Irvine Ranch Water District and $56 million for the Transportation Corridor Agencies.

These are just four of the debtors who profit from any new sales tax hike.

Guess what? Voters don’t feel like giving the transportation agency another $225 million, and they certainly can’t be expected to rally around the flag of paying the Irvine Ranch Water District $62 million.

That, in a nutshell, is why Measure R is headed south. Voters are smart and they are not in the mood to refinance obscure special districts, agencies and cities.

Had the county produced a plan to pay the private bondholders--who are short about $430 million--the schools--owed $110 million--and the private vendors who are awaiting payment on invoices totaling about $100 million, then a tax hike might have stood a chance.

But the county’s plan declares the loss suffered by the Irvine Ranch Water District to be the moral equivalent of the losses suffered by private vendors of goods and services to the county. That is a demonstrably false position, and voters are not buying it.

Many believe, in fact, that the schools have been unconscionably leveraged by the giant agencies in order to oblige well-meaning voters into paying the latter to help the former. The tactic backfired. Voters are smart.

It’s time to get serious about ending this mess. Elected officials throughout the county have to reclaim authority over the creditors committee. The supervisors, especially, have to publicly debate and agree on a priority system among the many claimants.

The bondholders, the vendors, the school districts and private depositors in the county’s investment pool (mostly minors) have claims amounting to about $650 million. The board must propose a plan to pay back that much, and no more.

Let any other government agency that wants to place itself on an equal footing with minors and private businesses, the schools and the bondholders, step up and argue that case publicly. They will be hooted down, and a few of them will be recalled.

The $650 million needed can be raised by, among other things, diverting a quarter-cent of the Measure M revenue now destined for the Orange County Transportation Authority. There’s $340 million in Measure M funds presently bound for light rail. Are the various members of the transportation agency going to argue that light rail in 2010 is more important than school funding now?

And there’s asset sales, which are just beginning, and privatization, which hasn’t even begun. There is the settlement pot from various litigations, and the bonding capacity freed up by Sacramento’s actions last month.

The majority of voters are not angry, only disappointed with business as usual, and perhaps a tad insulted. But they are impatient. It’s time to get on with the real work at hand.

The defeat of Measure R will close down a time-consuming sideshow. Let’s hope the Board of Supervisors studies the results with great care. If they conclude the voters are too angry to be rational, then they ought to reconsider their roles. No elected leader has the right to ignore a referendum. And none has the right to dismiss a result not to their liking as irrelevant to their plans.

Hugh Hewitt, a Newport Beach attorney, is co-host of KCET’s “Life & Times” and is active in the campaign against Measure R.