A tax hike battle may be brewing in Orange County. Late last year I had hopes that new county manager Frank Clifton was committed to changing the spend, spend, spend mindset of the commissioners and infusing the board with a sense of economic reality. Here’s what he told them in November (emphasis is mine)
“We were trying to be good stewards, and trying to respond to what the public wanted,” Commissioner Barry Jacobs said.
But new County Manager Frank Clifton told the commissioners they can no longer afford to give people everything they want.
“Our problem has been we focus on what we’re going to spend on,” he said, “instead of what we have to spend.”
For example, Clifton said barring a sudden upturn, most of the county’s current 65 vacancies will be “zeroed out,” or eliminated in the coming year’s budget.
It was a hopeful sign. But now we have this story, in which Clifton is floating tax hikes. To be fair, his job is to provide revenue options and recommendations, and he is telling commissioners they must look at cuts in spending.
Still, it is a bad sign that tax hikes during a recession are even a consideration. The story says Clifton’s options include a sales tax hike, a property tax hike, and increases in fees. The sales tax hike would have to be approved by voters and, as the record shows, it’s been tried more than 50 times around the state. Voters have said “yes” just 10 times.
So far it seems Clifton hasn’t mentioned the land transfer tax, in which sellers are taxed when they sell a home or land. In May 2008, Orange County failed in its attempt to get voters to approve the land transfer tax. Even in a county where policy and politics is dominated by the Left — and even after the county appropriated $100,000 for an “education” campaign — the transfer tax went down 2-to-1. In fact, the home tax has been defeated every single time it’s been put on the ballot. Its record is 24 to 0.
The message from citizens to county commissioners is clear: get your fiscal house in order.
