The Orange City Council is trying to muscle its residents into approving two November ballot tax increases — a one-cent sales tax and a 50% boost in hotel taxes (from 10% to 15%) — to close a massive spending gap that led to a $4.4-million deficit, per a Register report. To scare residents into approving the new taxes, city officials are throwing around the “b” word. The city’s budget problems are real, but there’s no rationale for threatening municipal bankruptcy.
The city is calling the coming initiative an “Essential Services Measure” that’s needed to “maintain City of Orange’s quality of life, such as 9-1-1 response; maintaining police/fire protection; preventing crimes/thefts; retaining/attracting well-trained police officers/firefighters; keeping public parks safe/clean; addressing homelessness” and so forth.
These services are essential, but what has the city been doing with its resources up until this point? Orange’s budget problems aren’t new. Council members pushed a half-cent sales-tax boost in 2024, but voters rejected it in a close tally. The city has since reduced some spending, but its latest cuts seem designed as a pressure campaign on voters.
As the VoiceofOC reported, the council moved money around from different accounts, froze spending on vacant positions and deferred $3 million in infrastructure projects. We’re not sure why it waited so long, but those changes suggest that bankruptcy isn’t really on the horizon — a point Councilman Denis Bilodeau made during a council meeting.
Other cities and the county are likewise facing fiscal struggles. But the fundamental problem — and one not easy to fix — is that during better times local governments have been overly generous with their public-employee unions. Neighboring Santa Ana, which wants to make its “temporary” sales tax permanent, has a habit of granting big police raises while not knowing how to pay for them.
Likewise, the city of Orange in April approved a contract that granted its employees a 3% cost-of-living raise. Now it wants voters to save it from itself. The city’s voters will have the final say, but they should at least understand the root of the budget problem.