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** ICYMI: We need John Moorlach to Save Orange County, Again

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By FRED WHITAKER

John Moorlach’s green-eyeshade expertise is needed in Orange County now more than ever. He just finished a six-year stint as state senator, where he was known as “the fiscal conscience of California.” Now he’s running for his old seat in the 2nd District of the Board of Supervisors.

The Democrats’ excessive COVID-19 lockdowns have devastated every local agency budget. Thousands of local businesses – the Mom and Pop places we all love – shuttered. Many thousands more have been severely damaged. Disneyland and Knotts Berry remain shuttered. South Coast Plaza was shut down for months.

The County of Orange as an agency is no different than the 34 cities.

Let’s remember what Moorlach already has done to save Orange County financially.

In 1994, he ran for treasurer-tax collector of OC. He lost the June primary to Bob Citron, the Democratic incumbent. Gamblin’ Bob’s “roulette wheel” always brought 10 percent or more returns to the investments of the county and local governments.

Then it didn’t. That December, rising interest rates rolled the roulette wheel to “00” and bankrupted the county. Citron resigned and went to jail.

The board appointed Moorlach treasurer-tax collector. He repaired county finances, paying off the bankruptcy debt early. Voters re-elected him twice.

He then ran and won for supervisor of the 2nd District in 2006. Even before he assumed office, he negotiated a deal on retiree medical car with public-employee unions that saved us again.

The Orange County Register reported the deal would “take a $1.4 billion long-term debt and chop it down by nearly a third.” That unfunded liability, plus a $2.3 billion county pension shortfall, had “triggered alarm bells for a county still recovering from its 1994 bankruptcy.”

On the O.C. Board of Supervisors, he guided the county through the tough times of the 2008-10 Great Recession. And he advanced helping the mentally ill and homeless. In 2014, as reported in the Register, OC became “only the second county in California to fully embrace Laura’s Law … a passionate project of outgoing Supervisor John Moorlach.”

Said Moorlach, “We cannot allow our jails to be the predominant location” for housing mentally ill people.

Winning his Senate seat in 2015, he advanced similar legislation at the state level, along with many reforms in almost every area of governance. Amazingly, he was the only CPA among 120 legislators, even though about 75 percent of government work is dealing with budgets.

By contrast, Moorlach’s main opponent for supervisor, Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley, presided over the plunge of her city’s finances to near-insolvency – even before COVID-19 hit.

The City of the Arts’ audit for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2020 (including the first three months of COVID-19) found an unrestricted net deficit of $251.4 million. That clocks in at $2,222 per person of liability – $8,888 for a family of four. It was the worst of OC’s 34 cities.

That $8,888 of family debt was run up during the boom times of the late 2010s – before COVID-19 killed the economy and tax revenues to local government. The audit itself cautioned looking forward, “As a result of the speed and severity of the economic downturn resulting from COVID-19, the city is experiencing a significant decrease in its major General Fund revenue comprised of local tax revenues, fees, fines and other charges.”

It’s easy to see how Foley could be the “tipping point” that topples the Leaning Tower of Orange County into insolvency 30 years after it did the first time.

It is time for Republican fiscal responsibility. Voting for John Moorlach is just the way to do it.

John Moorlach is the only candidate with the strength to beat Katrina Foley. A vote for anyone else merely risks a Foley win and return to 1994.

Fred M. Whitaker is the chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County.

The special election for Orange County’s Second District Supervisorial seat will be held on March 9th. The special election will not proceed to a runoff. Instead the highest vote-getter is awarded the seat. For more information visit www.johnmoorlach.com ([link removed]) .

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Copyright © 2021 Republican Party of Orange County, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you are a member or supporter of the OCGOP.

Our mailing address is:
Republican Party of Orange County
1422 Edinger Ave., Ste. 110
Tustin, CA 92780
USA
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