SACRAMENTO — When it comes to divvying up property tax dollars in the state of California, Orange County is a big loser.
Local officials have long argued that Capitol funding fights left Orange County hamstrung, while less wealthy counties came out winners. But after years of doing little more than gripe, miffed Orange County officials say they are ready to battle back.
With native sons playing prominent political roles these days in Sacramento, county-based lawmakers are making a run at rejiggering the arcane funding formulas that drive the way California's property tax dollars are divided.
Assemblywoman Marilyn C. Brewer (R-Irvine) last week introduced a bill she hopes will begin to address an inequity that dates back to the dramatic changes in the way county governments were financed after passage of tax-cutting Proposition 13 in 1978.
Democratic strongholds in urban areas such as San Francisco and Los Angeles scored big in those post-Prop. 13 fiscal wars, but the Republican bastion of Orange County--along with dozens of other suburban or rural counties--went begging. Democrats say it had nothing to do with partisan politics; Republicans heartily disagree.
Whatever the reason, the political tables have turned in Sacramento. The GOP now controls the Assembly and is vying the reverse the Democratic edge in the Senate. Given that, local lawmakers and groups such as the Orange County Taxpayers Assn. contend the stage is set to put all 58 California counties on more equal footing.
"It's time that the debate is joined," said Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle, a Garden Grove Republican who is expected to help push Brewer's package during the upcoming budget negotiations. "It's time to consider the inequities of the past and fully debate the disproportional funding that was put in place years ago. It's not something that just affects Orange County. It affects Riverside and San Bernardino and Fresno and lots of other counties."
Pringle will be expected, as one county official put it, to "carry the water" for the county along with Senate GOP Leader Rob Hurtt (R-Garden Grove) when the Orange County pair gather in late June as part of the "Big Five" discussions on the state budget. The other participants are Gov. Pete Wilson, Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) and Assembly Democratic Leader Richard Katz of Sylmar.
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