COSTA MESA UNPLUGGED:

Sitting with Costa Mesa City Manager Allan Roeder last year, I kibitzed with him about Costa Mesa’s budget. At the time, the real estate implosion was beginning to feel its oats even though consumers were still partying up.

I wondered to him what the spread looked like between the rise of compensation for the city’s police, fire and administrative personnel, and the increase in city revenues. Roeder went Ross Perot on me and pulled out a chart.

Let’s just say the trend line on compensation resembled something like an intermediate ski slope while the revenue line looked like the bunny hill. And so you can imagine that with time, the gap between the two became more impressive.

At some point, I suggested, don’t we need to bring those lines closer together? Roeder responded with that trademark affirmative nod of his where it looks like the spring in his neck is too loose.

A year later, I’m watching Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke tell a panel of pale-faced lawmakers that the financial institutions underpinning the nation’s economy are suffering from bed spins, and that all of us are liable to find our heads in the commode for a time to come.

Meanwhile, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae — the two institutions that have been the foundation of the American housing market for a generation — are running out of cash and needing, probably, public funds to stay in business.

This, of course, means more dollars flooding into a world economy already awash in them. And so the dollar continues its march toward the peso.

But in any case, back to those lines.

It’s been the habit of this city to avoid tax increases as one avoids STDs. That’s mostly because of the conservative tilt of the city. I get that. I loathe taxes.

But the hard fact is local governments have to fund themselves somehow. And it’s completely beyond reality for Costa Mesans to expect top-shelf police, fire and administrative services and to think there’s a money tree that’s not their wallets to pay the tab.

So it seems more than just prudent that the Costa Mesa City Council recently noodled on whether to let Goat Hill voters decide on whether to bump up the city’s bed tax. The starchy bureaucratic word for it is transient occupancy tax (TOT). In any case, it’s the levy charted to visitors who rent a room in Costa Mesa hotels and inns.

This column is coming together before the council’s vote. But I’m guessing the political instincts of the council majority will trigger a gag reflex on this one and that they’ll vote to keep the issue off the ballot. They may suggest we put the screws to the salaries of our police and fire folks, instead.

If I’m wrong, props to them.

The fact remains, Costa Mesa’s TOT has been stuck at 6% for more than 20 years. It’s the lowest bed levy in the county, which has an average 10.5% TOT. Each 1% boost in the TOT deposits a million bucks into the city’s coffers. I’d argue that we push it to 9%.

But that’s just me.

Meantime, that gap isn’t getting any smaller.

BYRON DE ARAKAL is a former Costa Mesa parks and recreation commissioner. Readers can reach him at cmunplugged@yahoo.com.