It Only Stands to Reason : Sometimes the tax option is the only sensible way out

Does Orange County need to boost its taxes, however temporarily, to escape the bankruptcy box it finds itself in? Increasingly it’s hard to find many reasonable people in Orange County who think not.

Staunch anti-tax forces have pointed to the self-assured pronouncements of the Reason Foundation of Santa Monica. Invited by the politically powerful Lincoln Club in February to study the county’s privatization options, the libertarian think tank argued fiercely that the besieged county could realize $1.4 billion or so from asset sales and lease-backs, and that new taxes were wholly unnecessary. But that was then and this is now. On Tuesday, the group’s senior vice president, Brian Snyder, went on KCRW-FM’s provocative public-policy talk show “Which Way, L.A.?” and called for a short-term tax increase on grounds that have been apparent to others studying the crisis: The money is absolutely and urgently needed now, not down the road.

The foundation’s sensible about-face echoes the conclusions of Orange County Chief Executive Officer William J. Popejoy and a group of business leaders who have taken a good look at the chilling numbers. Popejoy, in fact, had done everything but say a tax increase was necessary, and on Wednesday he too took the leap, recommending a half-cent sales tax increase. At every turn, the fiscal crisis seems to point out the futility of responses based on ideology. Practical and creative--and politically courageous--solutions are needed to get Orange County back on its feet. So when will the Board of Supervisors see the light?

Even Orange County respondents to a Times poll (the very people who would foot the tax bill) have indicated flexibility on the tax question. Business leaders have said taxes can’t be ruled out. And now, with the removal of the Reason Foundation linchpin, the wheel has come off the argument that Orange County can somehow get by without new sources of tax revenue. The stubborn anti-tax forces are standing very much alone in the spotlight. They must live with the knowledge that they seem prepared to let Orange County unravel in order to preserve their anti-tax ideology.