ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Conroy Bill Would Let County Tap Measure R Money

An Orange County lawmaker introduced a bill Friday to make a key change in state law needed before voters can shift nearly $340 million in county transportation sales tax revenues to provide bankruptcy relief.

The legislation authored by Assemblyman Mickey Conroy (R-Orange) would alter the state’s Public Utilities Code so Measure M transportation sales tax money could be used instead for the bankruptcy.

Current provisions of the code prevent the Orange County Transportation Authority from using revenue from Measure M, a half-cent sales tax approved by voters in 1990, for anything but transportation purposes.

The county’s legislative delegation in Sacramento has expressed an interest in having Orange County voters decide whether a quarter-cent of the Measure M money should be shifted for 10 years to bankruptcy recovery.

Conroy began preparing the legislation last week at the request of Supervisor Jim Silva, who hopes to put the Measure M shift on the ballot in March. Voters would be asked to approve the use of $340 million of Measure M money to help repay the nearly $2 billion in losses the county suffered last year when its investment portfolio crashed.

If voters shifted the Measure M money, the main victim would be a proposed light-rail project through the heart of Orange County. Conroy and other state lawmakers contend the rail project would be a boondoggle that would provide little traffic relief despite a high price tag.

“My bill will allow the people to decide how they want to spend their tax money: on a light rail line that might or might not be built sometime in the future--or to help lift the county out of bankruptcy now,” Conroy said in a prepared statement, adding that “the people of Orange County pay this tax. They should be able to decide how to use it.”

Meanwhile, Assemblyman Curt Pringle introduced a measure that would provide for a direct election of the Orange County Transportation Authority board.

Pringle, who has been at odds with the agency over its reluctance to apply Measure M money to the bankruptcy recovery, wants 10 board members, two each elected in the five supervisorial districts. Currently, the OCTA board consists of 12 appointed members.