O.C. Sales Tax Vote

The Times oversimplifies the issue. Your June 21 editorial claims that if the sales tax rate is raised, Orange County’s financial problems will be solved, and if the county’s voters reject the sales tax increase, the county will linger indefinitely in some kind of fiscal void. This is nonsense.

Tax increases almost never solve budget problems; if they did then California would have the most fiscally-sound state in the nation. Back in 1991 when Gov. Pete Wilson raised California’s taxes by $7 billion the argument was that the tax increase would solve the state’s budget crisis. Here we are four years after the tax increase with the state budget in worse shape than ever. Why does The Times think that Orange County will be any different?

None of the fundamental issues that led to the county’s bankruptcy has been addressed. The county investment pool is still not marked to market. The treasurer, who single-handedly controls the billions of dollars in the pool, is still elected rather than appointed. Orange County is still a bucket with a hole in it, and any attempt to fill the bucket will be futile until the bucket is patched or replaced.

L. W. VITANZA

Del Mar