Orange County Voices : OCTA’s Sitting on a Pile of Cash in the County’s Time of Need : Sell John Wayne Airport to the transportation authority and avoid a costly default.

Taxpayers lost more than $1.7 billion in the financial collapse of Orange County government--our money gambled away by an irresponsible county official. Now county taxpayers are being asked to replace the lost funds through Measure R, a one-half cent sales tax increase. It’s a bad idea, one that voters should reject Tuesday.

The proposed tax will leave Orange County with the highest sales-tax rate in the region. Before we agree to this economy-killing arrangement and see even more taken from our pockets by the tax man, we should insist reforms are in place and county government downsizing is underway. Furthermore, we should insist every dollar already taxed from us and not yet spent is brought to play in ending the county’s financial crisis.

Miraculously, there is a pot of unspent taxpayers’ money out there and available for our county’s rescue. The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) is sitting on a huge pile of taxpayer funds--our money. This cache offers a solution to the bankruptcy crisis without higher taxes and steps should be taken immediately to ensure this money is used for that purpose. This accumulation of tax money is partly the product of Measure M, a proposition approved by county voters long before our current financial mess. The money belongs to the taxpayers. It should be spent for what is demonstrably in our county’s best interest. If steps must be taken to make the transfer of excess OCTA funds happen--let’s get on with it.

The argument against this prudent course of action is that OCTA money, our money, must legally be spent on transportation projects. OK, air travel is a form of transportation. The county should sell John Wayne Airport to OCTA for all the cash and annual payments needed to avoid default on bonds that come due this summer. This is a win-win transaction. OCTA gets a bustling airport that produces more than $68 million in annual revenue. Orange County air travelers will continue to enjoy its convenience. OCTA chief Stan Oftelie recently expressed interest in purchasing the airport.

Another alternative has been advocated by Supervisor Roger R. Stanton: The OCTA should write off what the county owes it as a bad debt and then buy bonds issued by the county. OCTAwill contribute to Orange County’s recovery and receive a reasonable rate of return on the bonds it buys. The county would have quick access to OCTA’s cash and be able to pay off the bonds in future years. The bad debt the OCTA would write off would be no different than any other bad debt. It’s legal.

These options for obtaining OCTA’s pot of gold provide the least punishment for our hard-working residents. And these options will not undercut future transportation needs. Once the airport purchase is complete, OCTA’s bank accounts will quickly be replenished with newly collected Measure M funds and transit construction will continue.

If we can get those officials with authority over the funds now controlled by the OCTA to agree, our county will be able to meet its financial obligations. The threat of closed schools, neglected infrastructure, declining home values and bankrupt government will fade. This is the best solution, but there’s more good news.

Orange County CEO William Popejoy says he expects to recover at least a billion dollars in a settlement from Merrill Lynch, the Wall Street gurus who constructed former county Treasurer Robert Citron’s failed investment scheme. County officials are close to reaching an agreement with bondholders to roll the bonds over for one year--to give the county more time to meet its obligation. This promising news invalidates the sky-is-falling rhetoric of Measure R’s backers.

A tax hike is the worst solution. Orange County will lose, not gain, revenue from the proposed tax hike. Measure R will drive consumers to make appliance and other big-ticket purchases in surrounding lower-tax counties where they will save hard-earned dollars; each time that happens, our county will lose scarce tax revenue. Just as bad, hard-pressed Orange County businesses, will lose with each out-of-county sale--we’ll end up with a 10-year sales drought that will lift only when this highest tax provision expires.

The Measure R “highest tax” option is too painful. The job loss and business flight that will ensue will damage Orange County for decades. We can’t afford, nor should we abide, Measure R. Reaching government’s hand back into our pocketbooks to replenish tax dollars lost in a risky investment scheme is an outrage.

The OCTA can take immediate steps to assist the county. In our time of need, we must pool our resources and dig ourselves out of this financial hole, not tax people out of jobs and into economic decline.