Assembly Bill Is Fair Tax Solution

Thanks to The Times for its recent pieces on the need to repatriate some of the $3.5 billion in tax money that the state has pirated from local government. This arcane subject probably doesn’t sell a lot of papers, but it’s intensely important to Orange County taxpayers.

None of your items mentioned the real heroes of the effort. They are Assemblywoman Marilyn C. Brewer (R-Newport Beach) and John Chamberlain, chairman of the tax equity committee of the Orange County Taxpayers Assn. (OCTax). Brewer is the author of AB 661; OCTax is sole sponsor of the bill.

Other legislators’ efforts on this issue generally are one-year solutions based on the state’s current prosperity. Brewer’s AB 661 would make fundamental, long-term changes in the formulas by which property taxes are funneled back to cities and counties. Orange County, the state’s most generous “donor,” would be affected particularly by AB 661, but Brewer carefully drafted her bill to be fair to all counties. Donor counties will benefit; “recipient” counties will be unaffected.

Property-tax inequity is the result of a complicated interaction of five political and historical factors: Proposition 13, which limits property taxes, AB 8, which “locks in” outdated formulas for distribution; the Gann Limit, which restricts spending; Proposition 98, which earmarks 4l% of the state’s budget to education; and the Serrano-Priest court decision, which requires the state to fund all schools equally. (See? Your eyes are glazing over already.)

Brewer’s AB 661 is a thoughtful. effective, fair and long-term fix for a long-term problem.

REED L. ROYALTY

President

Orange County Taxpayers Assn.