Minutes 05-12-2020 Virtual Budget Public Hearing

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10 work to reduce spending and borrowing, especially on failed and potentially illegal activities. Here is the text: BOCC Public Hearing 2020 -2021 Budget Proposal May 12, 2020 Public Comment Orange County has the highest property and sales tax rates in the state. The 2020 —2021 operating budget proposal is not an austerity budget—at $273.6 million it continues to increase spending resulting in a two year increase of$15.0 million dollars. An austerity budget would at the very least return spending to the 2018 —2019 budget level of$ 258.6 million. This budget proposal is just more of the same increased spending with some window dressing like the elimination of employee performance bonuses to make it look like some austerity measures are being taken. These comments do not even get into the discussion of the capital budget and borrowings that present great future risk for taxpayers. One positive change would be to institute an immediate five year freeze on any spending on light rail and transit programs. After the massive waste of over$150 million dollars by Orange County government and GoTriangle there is clearly a need to stop these failing programs. This action should be followed by ending the County association with GoTriangle for more savings for the taxpayers of Orange County. This should also lead to the elimination of the Article 43 Sales Tax adders. Another change would be to immediately and permanently cease all funding of programs, persons, entities and organizations that shield and shelter or aid and abet the massive foreign criminal enterprise of illegal immigration. Orange County government departments should be reduced to reflect this change to further reduce cost. Providing tax funds for illegal immigration quite possibly is illegal under federal and state laws and should never have occurred in the first place. Also, the funds allocated to outside agencies should be cut rather than increased. Charity is the responsibility of private citizens and organizations, not government. The budget of$ 1.54 million dollars should, at the very least, be reduced to one half million dollars. The current approach of making this a percentage of budget only guarantees increased cost every year with no specifically identified need. No where in any of these budget proposals is there any identification of cost reductions through productivity improvements or the many expensive investments in technology. Costs should be going down from the benefit of these actions. All cost reduction actions should be used to reduce the sales and property tax rates—not to increase government bloat. While there are many other areas of potential reduction such as cancelling the recent half million dollar transit study and the half million dollar unnecessary climate tax spending, there is not enough time allocated for detailed review and analysis by private citizens to point out all these opportunities. Someone in county government needs to start advocating for the taxpayers and the thousands of citizens and businesses that have been financially damaged by the Wuhan virus crisis and the bloated Orange County government.