Fighting to make taxes fair, understandable, cost-effective, and good for business!

History of OCTax

1986

· The Orange County Taxpayers Association was founded and incorporated.

· Proposition 13 (1978) had eliminated the ability of local governments to issue local general obligation bonds.  In our first year of existence, OCTax (and others) successfully supported Proposition 46, which restored that ability - but with a 2/3 popular vote.

· OCTax successfully supported Proposition 50, which permits property owners to transfer their Proposition 13 base values to comparable properties in the event of disaster.

· OCTax successfully supported Proposition 58, which permits people over 55 years of age to transfer base-year assessed values of their principal residences to comparable or lesser dwellings in the same county without change-of-ownership reassessments.

OCTax successfully supported Proposition 62, which requires a 2/3 vote of the people for local special tax increases.

 

1988

· OCTax successfully supported a state “taxpayers’ bill of rights” that prevents performance evaluations of government employees from being based on their revenue production.  This slowed “bounty hunting” behavior among bureaucrats - or at least prevented it from being mentioned in evaluations.

OCTax unsuccessfully opposed Proposition 98, which gutted the Gann spending limit.  The Gann limit required the state to refund excess revenue to taxpayers.  Proposition 98 gave excess money to K-14 schools, effectively guaranteeing schools 41% of the budget.

 

1990

OCTax’s president (who chaired the Industrial League of Orange County, which became part of the Orange County Business Council) chaired the successful campaign for Measure M, the half-cent sales tax for transportation.  We found the tax to meet our criteria:  it is “fair, understandable, cost effective, and good for business.”  Similar measures had failed twice before.

 

1991

OCTax unsuccessfully opposed a package of legislation (drafted by Democrats and signed by Republican Governor Wilson) that raised taxes by $7.1 billion.

 

1992

OCTax unsuccessfully opposed the “Wilson shift,” which took $3.5 billion per year from counties, cities and special districts and gave it to schools.  Governor Wilson said it was “not a tax increase,” but he encouraged local agencies to increase taxes to make up for it.  This was a principal cause of Orange’s becoming a “donor county” to the rest of the state.

 

1993

· OCTax successfully opposed Proposition 170, which would have gutted Proposition 13 by reducing the popular vote for local special taxes from 2/3 to a simple majority.

In an embarrassing lapse of judgment, OCTax was largely silent on Proposition 172 (sponsored by Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates and his Los Angeles counterpart), a half-cent sales tax for public safety.  Nobody could stare down Sheriff Gates.

 

1994

· OCTax endorsed Hearthside Homes’ Bolsa Chica Wetlands restoration plan, a project in which we would participate more than a decade.

· Representing Cal-Tax, OCTax and others successfully shamed the Huntington Beach City Council into ending the city’s “pension spiking” program.

· OCTax studied the tax effects of converting USMCAS-El Toro into a civilian airport.  Finding negligible effect, OCTax asked the Board of Supervisors to support the proposal.  A decade of acrimonious competing ballot initiatives followed.

· OCTax unsuccessfully lobbied to privatize Anaheim’s two golf courses.

· OCTax undertook the study of Orange’s status as a “donor” county to the rest of the state.

· OCTax studied the tax effects of the Westcot development (later to become “Disney’s California Adventure”).  OCTax’s president was a co-founder of “Disneyland 2000,” a community support group for the “second gate.”

· Partly at OCTax’s urging, Governor Wilson vetoed SB 1448, which would have authorized a statewide parcel tax to pay for library operations.  We have had equal success fighting similar statewide parcel tax efforts through the years.  Property taxes should be local, not statewide.

OCTax studied the costs and benefits of extending SR-57 above the Santa Ana River.

 

1995

· OCTax sponsored a bill to help correct Orange’s situation as a donor county.  OCTax sponsored several such bills in years to come.

· OCTax teamed with the county Chief Executive Officer to support the county’s bankruptcy recovery plan.  We signed the ballot argument for Measure R, a sales tax increase, only because we felt that today’s taxpayers should pay for our own problems rather than passing our debts to future generations through bond financing.

· OCTax opposed many legislative bills that would authorize property tax increases without a vote of the public, grant additional retirement benefits to public employees, continue the 10% and 11% income tax brackets, and amend the Constitution to allow passage of the state budget and appropriation bills by simple majority.  We supported bills that would strengthen public notice requirements of proposed salary and benefit increases for public employees, and reduce income taxes.  These activities continue.

OCTax successfully supported Proposition 58, which permits people over 55 years of age to transfer base-year values of their principal residences to comparable or lesser dwellings in the same county without change-of-ownership reassessments.  Some counties now accept county-to-county transfers of base-year values.

 

1996

· OCTax participated in the Transportation Authority’s “Major Investment Study.”  We studied the proposal for light rail (CenterLine) and found it to be not cost effective.

· OCTax successfully recommended positions on 15 statewide ballot propositions, including Proposition 217, which would have re-instated the top income tax brackets, and Proposition 218, which requires voter approval of most local tax increases.

· We testified before the state legislature in favor of partial deregulation of electricity.  Good idea.  Too bad the governor and CPUC sabotaged the effort because they distrusted free enterprise.

· We successfully fought taxes disguised as street-trench fees in Orange County cities.

· OCTax participated in the county’s Government Practices Committee to recommend reforms that would help the county recover from bankruptcy.

· OCTax helped convince Anaheim to allow the Walt Disney Company to refurbish and manage Anaheim Stadium and to manage the California Angels.

· OCTax wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice in support of stationing an INS agent in the Anaheim Jail to identify felons who are undocumented aliens.  The program is still in operation.

OCTax served on the County’s Privatization Task force.  We signed the ballot argument in favor of Measure T, which eased some general-law restrictions on outsourcing of government services.

 

1997

· OCTax successfully fought a proposed takeover of nine private ambulance companies by the Orange County Fire Authority.

· OCTax unsuccessfully championed the privatization of some water district services.

· OCTax began working successfully to help local governments implement Federal welfare-to-work policies.

· OCTax successfully testified, and signed the ballot argument, in favor of continuing a portion of the City of Anaheim’s transient occupancy tax for Resort Area improvements.

OCTax began a long, and mostly successful, campaign against the municipalization of communication and energy utility services in Orange and neighboring counties.

 

1998

· OCTax editorialized against a court decision that greatly expanded retirement benefits for public employee unions.  An unintended consequence:  OCTax’s president was appointed to the board of the Orange County Employees’ Retirement System.

· OCTax recommended positions on 11 state ballot issues, including “no” on Proposition 5, which grants Indian tribes an unfair racially-based monopoly on casino gambling.

· OCTax joined a long campaign to reduce or eliminate the Vehicle License Fee, a tax disguised as a fee that does not benefit motorists.  We finally were successful when Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor.

OCTax successfully endorsed a plan to allow commercial sponsorship of county services for harbors, beaches, and parks.  The immediate tax saving was $2.5 million.

 

1999

· OCTax offered voters a list of criteria for judging the merit of school bonds.  Our criteria have become standard for school bonds, and many have been incorporated into state law.

· OCTax began its support of the Headlands Reserve development project in Dana Point, which came to fruition in 2005.

OCTax opposed the City of Santa Ana’s proposed tax on developers to support the city’s artists’ colony.  The tax would have violated Proposition 218.

 

2000

· OCTax successfully recommended positions on most of 23 ballot propositions, including  Proposition 25, which would have limited campaign contributions, Proposition 26, which would have lowered the required vote for school bonds from two-thirds to a simple majority, and Orange County Measure F, which would have raised the voting requirement to two-thirds for approval of new jails, landfills, and (especially) airports.

· OCTax successfully opposed SB 1594, which would have replaced the existing unpaid board of directors of the Metropolitan Water District with highly paid elected officials.  The bill was designed to create sinecures for termed-out state elected officials.

· OCTax unsuccessfully opposed Newport Beach’s “Greenlight Initiative,” which limits property owners’ rights.

· OCTax orchestrated a compromise with the Vector Control District by which private pest control managers are assigned 50% of the work of fire ant abatement.

· OCTax was a principal supporter of the Orange County Water District’s Groundwater Replenishment System, now going into operation.

OCTax successfully wrote the ballot argument against Huntington Beach’s Measure Q, which was designed to disadvantage the AES generating plant.

 

2001

· OCTax successfully opposed Huntington Beach Measures GG and HH, which were unethically linked to disguise a special tax as a general tax so that it could pass with a simple majority.  They were designed to disadvantage the AES generating plant.

· OCTax unsuccessfully opposed the county’s plan to grant “3% at 50” pension benefits to public safety employees.  The immediate cost to taxpayers was about $400 million; the long-term cost is many times that.  OCTax continues to oppose, with partial success, a succession of legislative bills that would extend such benefits to non-safety employees.

· OCTax began fighting various bills and rulings that would prevent the extension of the SR-241 toll road to the I-5 south of San Clemente.

OCTax unsuccessfully fought a state takeover of portions of the electricity industry.  Our analysis of the disastrous consequences later proved to be exactly right.

 

2002

· OCTax intervened in reversing the Poole decision, which gave a few taxpayers an unwarranted tax advantage by limiting property tax increases to two percent even when the property declines, then increases, in value.  Victory came in 2004.

· OCTax successfully supported AB 1992, which assigns the costs of public employee disability benefits to government agencies in proportion to their use of such benefits.

· OCTax supported the permitting of JSerra High School because taxpayers save $7,000 for every student in private school.

· OCTax successfully supported AB 1010, which empowers the Orange County Transportation Authority to charge highway tolls.  This cleared the way for the Authority’s purchase of the SR-91 toll lanes and the end of the non-compete agreement.

· OCTax, mostly with success, recommended positions on 15 state and local ballot propositions, including defeating Placentia’s Measures Z and AA (utility taxes).

· OCTax successfully supported the “Ranch Plan” for development of a relatively small portion of Rancho Mission Viejo’s property in exchange for a large portion of open space at no cost to taxpayers.

· OCTax successfully supported merging some of the assets of the two toll road agencies.  This saves money and helps the San Joaquin Hills toll road make its bond payments.

OCTax successfully supported the Tonner Hills development, which will set aside 71% of the property for public open space at no cost to taxpayers.

 

2003

· OCTax representatives serve on the Citizens’ Oversight Committees of most school districts that have passed bond measures since OCTax published its school bond criteria.

· OCTax complained that Rancho Santiago Community College District waited until after its bond election to sign a Project Labor Agreement for construction and maintenance.  We added a 13th criterion to our bond measure analysis guide to prevent such duplicity in the future.  A second RSCCD bond measure failed in 2006.

· OCTax successfully opposed AB 496, which would have created the Santa Ana River Conservancy.  We felt it would have created an intractable bureaucracy.

· OCTax successfully opposed Santa Ana’s “maintenance district assessment,” a tax disguised as a fee.  Voters rejected it by a wide margin.

· OCTax presented the “donor county” issue to the Orange County Grand Jury, which issued a report on the subject.

· OCTax testified against the county’s so-called Performance Incentive Plan, which in practice is an automatic annual two percent bonus for 95% of county employees.  County Supervisors pretended not to hear our testimony.

· OCTax began its support of the proposed Poseidon desalination plant in Huntington Beach, which would provide a public benefit with private financing.  The effort to approve the project continues.

OCTax testified before the Brea Planning Commission in support of the proposed 3,000-acre Aera housing development (that is 90% in Los Angeles County).  50% of the property would be set aside for open space.  The effort continues.

 

2004

· OCTax participated in a tour of Los Angeles County’s “Gold Line” light rail system.  We remain unconvinced that such a system would be cost-effective in Orange County.

· OCTax testified successfully against Irvine’s proposal to build its own electricity utility to serve the Northern Sphere.

· OCTax successfully recommended positions on many ballot initiatives, including opposition to Proposition 56, which would have reduced the voting hurdle for new taxes to 55%, and a Brea business license tax increase.

OCTax testified unsuccessfully in opposition to the Supervisors’ granting general county employees the excessive “2.7% at 55” retirement benefit.

 

2005

· OCTax began studying the feasibility of sponsoring a political action committee (OCTaxPAC), an independent organization that would support candidates for public office who try to make taxes “fair, understandable, cost-effective, and good for business.”  OCTax has never before taken sides in candidate races.

· OCTax issued position papers on 14 ballot propositions, with some success, including Proposition 80 (utility taxes), a La Habra utility users’ tax, and county Measures B, C, D and E (which would have redistributed Proposition 172 public safety money).

· OCTax spoke against a proposal that would have moved the county’s employees from the Orange County Public Employees’ Retirement System into the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, largely on the basis that it would have masked the true cost of public employee pensions.

· OCTax successfully joined Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse in opposing AB 528, which would have gutted Proposition 64’s limits on frivolous lawsuits.

· OCTax unsuccessfully supported ACA 5, which would have put public employees on a “hybrid” pension plan that blends defined-benefit and defined-contribution elements.  The labor-dominated legislature never held a hearing on the proposal.

OCTax successfully opposed AB 328 and AB 329, which would have extended private homeowners’ leases on public land at Crystal Cove.

 

2006

· OCTax helped design, and signed the ballot arguments for, Renewed Measure M, which would extend the half-cent sales tax for transportation that we helped pass in 1990.  Voters approved Renewed Measure M with an astounding 69.7% of the vote.

· OCTax successfully testified in favor of imposing a surcharge on independent and non-franchised waste haulers to ensure that they pay a share of the cost of meeting state-mandated AB 939 diversion goals.

· OCTax joined other organizations in counter-filing a legal suit against the California Attorney General, who seeks to block extension of the SR-241 toll road to I-5.

· OCTax testified successfully against AB 2397, which would have prevented the Metropolitan Water District from contracting for services.

OCTax issued position papers, with great success, on 17 ballot propositions, including Orange County Measure A (eminent domain we - won), Yorba Linda Measure B and Newport Beach Measure X (limiting property rights - lost one, won one), and a remarkable assortment of self-serving state ballot propositions (we generally won).

 

The above chronology represents about 15% of OCTax’s activities in its first 20 years.  Hundreds of actions on federal, state, and local bills are not included, nor are 220 meetings with prominent elected and appointed officials, nor are 160 letters to editors and numerous speeches on tax policy.

 

We’re just getting warmed up.  The next 20 years will be even better!