Countywide : 2 Supervisors Push for O.C. to Get Revenue

For years, government leaders have complained that county taxpayers give the state much more money than they get back in services and grants.

Now two officials are urging the county to do something about it.

Supervisors Donald J. Saltarelli and Marian Bergeson will propose next week that the board seek changes in state law that would result in the county receiving a larger chunk of the property, business and sales taxes it sends to Sacramento.

The county contributes at least $1 billion more to the state than it gets back in government and educational grants as well as Medi-Cal benefit payments, according to a report prepared by Bergeson’s and Saltarelli’s offices.

“We believe this is the right time to deal with this problem,” Saltarelli said Thursday.

With Orange County lawmakers now holding top Republican leadership positions in both the Assembly and the Senate, “we think our legislative delegation is in a better position now than in the past to deal with this,” he said.

The full Board of Supervisors will be asked Tuesday to back a bill sponsored by state Sen. William A. Craven (R-Oceanside) that would return to local agencies some of the property tax revenue the state began diverting in 1992.

Saltarelli and Bergeson also want the board to ask Orange County lawmakers and members of the California Constitutional Revision Commission to pursue changes that would provide the county with a greater share of its tax dollars.