With Measure Z appearing to head toward failure, the city of Orange is likely to face additional budget cuts in the weeks and months ahead.
The proposed half-cent local sales tax would have raised approximately $19 million per year for the city over the next 10 years. More than 51% of voters were opposed as of Wednesday’s end-of-day update of ballot counting.
Orange has faced an escalating structural budget deficit for more than a decade, city officials have said. The deficit had grown to $19.1 million last year and was projected to get even larger in fiscal year 2024-25.
The City Council made deep cuts this summer to most city departments to help close the gap. Among other austerity measures, the city slashed funding for popular annual events such as Treats in the Streets and the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony, while also freezing unfilled public safety positions, denying cost of living adjustments to staff, outsourcing a school crossing guard program and even cutting janitorial services at City Hall.
“That race, from what I understand, is still too close to call with so many outstanding votes,” Orange Mayor Dan Slater said Wednesday afternoon. “But, whatever Orange voters decide, we will find a way to make it work.”
Slater, along with councilmembers Jon Dumitru, Kathy Tavoularis and Ana Gutierrez, ran unopposed in the 2024 elections and will return to the dais for new terms.
Opponents of Measure Z heavily outspent proponents of the tax, according to campaign finance statements filed with the Orange city clerk.
As of Oct. 19, the Orange County Automobile Dealers Association Issues Political Action Committee had spent more than $250,000 to defeat Measure Z and had another $600,000 in the bank ready to spend.
By contrast, the Orange City Firefighters PAC — the group organizing the “Yes on Z” campaign — had spent $14,000 on the race and raised just several thousand dollars more than that as of that same date.
While results so far suggest Orange voters narrowly rejected the local sales tax, Measure AA, a city fireworks ordinance, is set to pass by a wide margin.
Measure AA will allow the sale and use of safe and sane fireworks in Orange for the Fourth of July. The City Council would have the authority to set restrictions on who may sell fireworks and when and where they may be sold and discharged. And, the fire chief would have the authority to ban fireworks in what he deems high-risk fire areas.
Eleven cities in Orange County, including Anaheim, Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Villa Park — which neighbor Orange — already allow the sale of the state-regulated fireworks before the July 4 holiday, which proponents say helps community groups in those cities raise hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.
The Registrar of Voters said there are tens of thousands of mailed-in and dropped-off ballots still to count in Orange County. Results will be updated daily at 5 p.m., except weekends, until the counting is complete.
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