An analysis of the City of Santa Ana’s overall finances, by Truth in Accounting (TIA), has revealed that the CIty owes more than it owns. To make matters worse, Santa Ana’s Taxpayer Burden™ is -$5,600, and it received a “D” from TIA.
What is a taxpayer burden? It is a measurement that incorporates all assets and liabilities, including retirement obligations.
Santa Ana only has $458.9 million of assets available to pay bills totaling $1 billion. Because Santa Ana doesn’t have enough money to pay its bills, it has a -$565.7 million financial hole. To erase this shortfall, each Santa Ana taxpayer would have to send $5,600 to the city.
Santa Ana’s reported net position is inflated by $87.9 million, largely because the city defers recognizing losses incurred when retirement liabilities increase.
Santa Ana is essentially a Sinkhole City without enough assets to cover its debt. The taxpayer burden has almost doubled since 2016.
As more and more police officers, firemen and other public workers retire the Santa Ana debt will continue to grow exponentially.
Sadly our City Council and Planning Commission are more likely to reject new businesses and development projects than accept them. The City cannot grow the tax base if new deals keep getting rejected.
How will this end? If Santa Ana cannot dig out of its self-created financial hole we could be looking at what might be the largest municipal bankruptcy in Orange County;s history.
