ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Good Questions About the Budget

Orange County supervisors are asking the right questions in their efforts to stanch a budget deficit that now stands at $40 million and may get worse. And it’s time for Sheriff Brad Gates to help out.

The supervisors spent two days on public hearings this week, wrestling with how much to cut every department and agency in the county, from health services to libraries, from parks to the Sheriff’s Department. Gates is a popular elected official charged with protecting a vital interest: public safety. Thus the supervisors were properly cautious in questioning two of his top assistants about how to spread the county’s budget pain.

All five supervisors correctly opposed closing the James A. Musick Branch Jail, as Gates threatened to do last week if his budget is cut too much. Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, himself a former police officer, rightly questioned whether it is cost-effective for the department to spend $1 million a year on two helicopters when the county’s rapid urbanization has reduced the population of unincorporated county territory, which sheriff’s deputies patrol, to about 160,000.

The proposed budget cuts back the Sheriff’s Department less than most other county agencies. And the supervisors rightly must let the sheriff decide how to spend his funds. But Gates must do his share to help the county balance the books. Those helicopters could be a good place to start.