Sheriff’s Department Still to Get Most of Special Sales Tax

County supervisors voted narrowly Tuesday to continue giving the Sheriff’s Department the lion’s share of millions raised each year from a special sales tax for law enforcement.

The 3-2 vote made the policy permanent, despite objections from Supervisor Marian Bergeson who argued that future boards will not have the flexibility to use the funds where they are needed.

The half-cent sales tax, authorized by Proposition 172 in 1993, is expected to raise more than $149 million in Orange County next year. Local police agencies get 5% of the money. Of the remainder, 80% goes to the Sheriff’s Department and 20% to the district attorney’s office.

Bergeson and Supervisor William G. Steiner opposed the policy, while supervisors Roger R. Stanton, Jim Silva and Don Saltarelli voted for it. Steiner wanted some of the money to go to the County Probation Department, which receives no Proposition 172 money.

County law enforcement agencies that do not receive funding from the measure, including the Probation Department and marshal’s office, had asked the Board of Supervisors for a share. Earlier this year, Orange County Marshal Michael S. Carona asked the Board for an annual disbursement of $2.2 million. Carona said the county’s bankruptcy had slashed his agency’s budget and that he needed the money to pay deputies to deliver search warrants.

Last September, the board voted to continue giving most of the Proposition 172 sales tax revenue to the agencies headed by Sheriff Brad Gates and Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi. But in January, supervisors voted to take another look at the way the funds are distributed.

On Tuesday, they were swayed by Sheriff Brad Gates’ argument that the proposition limited the allocation of revenues to the Sheriff’s Department, district attorney and local police agencies.

Carona pleaded with board members Tuesday to give his agency $2.2 million annually, calling it “minuscule” compared to the amounts received by Gates’ and Capizzi’s departments.

Gates angrily retorted that Carona was “playing a shell game” in his attempt to get Proposition 172 funds.