New Santa Ana | Tag Archives: chriss street

Orange County’s financial crisis exposed by California lawsuit

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Art Pedroza Posted in Education, John Moorlach, OC Treasurer, Orange County, Politics, Santa Ana Leave a comment

Op Ed: CALIFORNIA LAWSUIT EXPOSES ORANGE COUNTY FINANCIAL CRISIS

By: Chriss W. Street

The ballooning Orange County financial crisis continued to spiral down as the State of California filed a law suit to force return of $73.5 million of property tax revenue the County skimmed from local schools and community colleges last November. It seemed bazaar at the time that the supposed “Most Conservative County in America” would increase spending by $145.8 million, then grab the school’s cash and cancel planned layoffs of 490 union workers.

The new lawsuit has caused increased scrutiny of other dicey actions by the County. The biggest shock came from the recently released Orange County 2010-11 Audited Financial Report, which discloses the County is short $30,146,000 in Reserves and out of accounting compliance: Continue reading→

Did O.C. Supervisors rip off our schools to save union jobs?

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Art Pedroza Posted in Education, Jobs, Orange County, Politics, Republican Party, Santa Ana 4 Comments

OC CONSERVATIVES RIP-OFF SCHOOLS TO SAVE UNION JOBS

By Chriss Street

Orange County, California is often referred to as the “Most Conservative County in America.” But County Supervisors have made a mockery of that title by increasing spending by $145.8 million, in a year of lower property tax collection. Now that the County has started running out of cash, they simply diverted $73.5 million from the school’s share of property taxes to stop layoffs of 490 County unionized employees. Conservatives support small government, low taxes,and prudent spending. The County protecting their union buddies at the expense of firing 865school teachers doesn’t sound very conservative to me. Continue reading→

Steven Greenhut’s book signing at Barnes and Noble draws a crowd

Posted on December 11, 2009 by Art Pedroza Posted in Labor, Literature, Orange, Orange County Leave a comment

Steven Greenhut Book Signing

Former O.C. Register editorial writer Steven Greenhut signed copies of his new book, Plunder!, at the Barnes and Noble bookstore located across from the MainPlace Mall, in Santa Ana, on Thursday evening. Click here to read a column about this new book, by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

A cameraman was there to record the book signing, for a feature which will play on C-SPAN in about a month. The publisher of Plunder!, Kira Fulks, was also there.

About forty of Greenhut’s fans showed up for the signing, including local bloggers Art Pedroza and Larry Gilbert of the Orange Juice blog. They were joined by bloggers Allan Bartlett, of Red County and the PowderBlue Report; Tony Bushala, of the Friends for Fullerton’s Future blog; former O.C. Register editorial writer John Seiler, who now has his own blog; and Jack Dean of the Pension Tsunami blog.

There were a few politicians there as well, including Republican congressional candidate Quang Pham; Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector Chriss Street; Anaheim City Council candidate Tom Tait; and Andrew Favor, who is running for State Controller as a Libertarian.

Mark Bucher, who is heading up a ballot measure campaign to stop unions from giving their member’s dues to political campaigns, was also there. Bucher wrote the foreword to Greenhut’s book and he introduced Greenhut tonight. Click here to visit the website for Bucher’s “Citizen Power” campaign.

Here are more pictures from the event: Continue reading→