EDITORIAL:

We believe that Costa Mesa City Councilwoman Wendy Leece is off the mark with her proposal to take, for the city, a portion of the proceeds made by nonprofit organizations selling safe-and-sane fireworks.

Leece argues that the money could be used for enforcement and education related to the Fourth of July.

Under one facet of her proposal, nonprofit groups — many of them youth sports organizations — would have to give about 20% of their sales to the city.

“I just think this is a fair way to do this,” she said.

But it would devastate nonprofits who rely on fireworks sales to fund their organizations and activities.

Take Pop Warner football. President Steve Mensinger said the proposal would cripple youth sports organizations. Pop Warner, he said, gets 25% of its revenue from fireworks sales. Estancia High School’s football program gets about 50% of its money from the stands.

Council members Katrina Foley and Gary Monahan, who argued against Leece’s proposal, have it right on this one.

Foley says she doesn’t think the extra money the city would spend on the Fourth of July would make a difference and that financing enforcement and education efforts with money from youth sports organizations is unacceptable.

“I absolutely can’t charge the groups,” she said. “I don’t think we should be charging the charities for this enforcement.”

In the name of context, we should note that Costa Mesa is projecting an $11-million budget deficit and council members are scrambling for ways to increase revenue and decrease spending.

But we’re confident the city can find other revenue sources (or areas to cut) that wouldn’t adversely affect charity organizations.

And we urge them to do just that while continuing to allow youth sports groups and other nonprofits to raise good chunks of money for worthy causes by selling fireworks.