Supporters of Jail Tax Say Fight All Uphill

SACRAMENTO —  Orange County supporters of a sales tax increase to build a new county jail managed only a half-smile Saturday after news that the Legislature narrowly cleared a bill allowing the question to be placed on the ballot.

That, they said, was the easy part.

Tax is an ugly word in the nation’s conservative Republican heartland, and even some of the strongest supporters of a half-cent increase to pay for a badly needed jail, planned for Gypsum Canyon, are highly skeptical of its chances at the polls next year.

“Attempting to get (Orange County) voters to pass a sales tax increase for a jail is probably the hardest political exercise that will ever occur in California,” said Harvey Englander, a Newport Beach political consultant. “It would be easier to elect George McGovern a county supervisor than it would be to get this to pass.”

Eileen Padberg, a political consultant who has been hired by Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates to run the campaign for the tax increase, also conceded that “it’s going to be very difficult.”

“Any sales tax proposal in Orange County is extremely difficult,” she said. “Orange County is a very conservative county, and every tax increase that has been on the ballot has failed.”

The half-cent sales tax measure was the centerpiece of Orange County-related legislation passed during the 1989 legislative session.

Lawmakers also agreed to give $1.5 million to help restore the Huntington Beach Pier and, in response to a fire that killed two children in an Orange County day-care home, passed a measure that requires that both a fire extinguisher and a smoke detector be installed in small child-care facilities.

The Legislature, inspired by the controversial election of rookie Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove), also passed a new bill that makes it a felony to post armed or uniformed security guards at polling places. The Orange County Republican Party and Pringle are accused of posting uniform guards at 20 Santa Ana precincts to intimidate Latino voters, many of whom are Democrats.

But the biggest legislative feat was the half-cent sales tax measure. That tax has tapped an emotional opposition that was clear in the bitter battle Friday night.

Minutes before midnight in the final hours of the 1989 legislative session, the bill cleared the Assembly by one vote on its third attempt of the evening. The victory climaxed months of hardball political maneuvering that saw the bill twice dropped or killed.

Earlier Friday, the state Senate passed the jail tax measure by a vote of 23 to 11.

Leaning Toward Approval

In a press conference Saturday, Gov. George Deukmejian said he was leaning toward approval of the sales tax authorization bill, which includes Orange, Los Angeles and four other financially strapped counties.

“Our policy in the past has been to allow counties to go forward with proposals as long as it did require that there had to be a vote of the people if there was going to be an increase in the tax,” Deukmejian said.

But the governor said he first wanted to study a Superior Court decision that rejected a similar sales tax for San Diego County on grounds that it was an unconstitutional end-run around Proposition 13. That May ruling is being appealed.

“I suppose we would want to look and see what the ramifications of the legal decision are as it related to San Diego and whether or not it would have a similar effect in Los Angeles or Orange counties,” he said.

The sales tax faces an organized opposition in Orange County that is politically and financially potent.

The cities of Anaheim and Yorba Linda are already planning to litigate the county’s decision to build a jail in Gypsum Canyon and they have promised to support a campaign against the tax measure.

Qualified for Ballot

Also, a citizens’ organization called Taxpayers for a Centralized Jail has already qualified a measure for the June, 1990, ballot--aimed at the Gypsum Canyon jail--that would require all future jails to be built in Santa Ana.

The Gypsum Canyon jail is also opposed by two of the county’s five supervisors: Don R. Roth and Gaddi H. Vasquez.

“If they think getting the bill passed was tough . . . they haven’t seen nothing,” Roth said Saturday. “On a scale of 1 to 10, I give it a minus 9.”

Proponents also acknowledge that their effort will be complicated because the county is asking for a separate half-cent increase on the ballot this November to pay for transportation improvements such as the widening of the Santa Ana Freeway.

Polls are already showing that passage of the transportation tax will be difficult, and political strategists are worried that the electorate is not going to swallow two tax increases barely six months apart.

Orange County voters soundly rejected a 1-cent sales tax increase for road improvements in 1986. And still, the sequel is considered more likely to pass than a jail tax because traffic has already had a significant impact on life style, much more than the overcrowded jails.

Not Easy

“When you have two issues--both of which reference an increase in the sales tax--then there is a (negative) effect you will get,” said County Administrative Officer Larry Parrish. “Anything that follows will be more difficult because it is another increase.

“I don’t want to say pessimism is how I feel. . . . But what happens now could not be described as easy.”

Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, a supporter of the sales tax and the Gypsum Canyon jail, said, “I have no doubt this is going to be very, very difficult because most people tend to be very skeptical about the need for more tax funding.”

About the measure’s chances, Stanton said, “Let me use one word-- hopeful-- and leave it at that.”

Some of the county’s reluctance to support a jail sales tax was evident in last November’s election. A bond measure on the ballot to provide money for county jails passed 55% to 45% statewide, while in Orange County it squeaked by 51% to 49%.

Padberg said the campaign strategy for the tax will highlight the number of prisoners who have to be released because of overcrowded jails and will include the theme: “If you want law enforcement to be tougher on criminals, then we have to have a place to put them.”

Only Way to Solve It

Padberg said there is a crisis in Orange County’s overcrowded jails adding: “The sheriff believes, and I agree, that we are going to have to try to put this on the ballot until it is passed. This is not a problem that can be solved virtually any other way.”

Santa Ana officials, who have been pitted against Anaheim in the battle over placement of the county’s next jail complex, also conceded Saturday that the sales tax could prove to be a “monumental task.” But they said it is possible if the public is educated about the number of criminals who have to be prematurely released from the overcrowded jail system.

Councilman Miguel A. Pulido, who has participated in the behind-the-scenes negotiating over the sales tax measure, said he believes much of that education will be done by the sheriff and the 29 chiefs of police in Orange County.

“Being that Orange County is a conservative county, I think it is loyal and responsive to law enforcement,” Pulido said. “And this is going to be law enforcement pushing strong for this position. Gates is going to be all over it.”

Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young also said that--like traffic jams--the argument for a jail sales tax strikes at the heart of what Orange County residents care about the most--quality of life.

“Admittedly, the voters are going to be looking very closely at any tax increase, but they are going to have to make a decision of whether they want the quality of life to deteriorate.

“Do we want a county that is so congested that you can’t get to work and we further exacerbate the problems of air quality? Do we want to have this drug epidemic take us over or do we want to have adequate jail space to put the drug pushers away?”

MORE COVERAGE

Part I, Pages 1 and 3