As a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Financial Planner, John Moorlach began his career in public service 20 years ago when he warned that then Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert Citron’s risky investment strategies would lead to bankruptcy. Moorlach’s warnings proved true when Orange County filed for bankruptcy protection in December 1994, then the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. He was appointed the county Treasurer-Tax Collector in 1995 and was twice re-elected. In 2006, voters elected John to serve in his first of two terms on the Board of Supervisors, where he continued his focus on reforming the county’s budget practices and sounding the alarm on the county’s growing unfunded liabilities. He served from 2015 to 2020 as the State senator for the 37th Senate district. He is now a senior fellow and director of CPC’s Center for Public Accountability.
How is your city doing? My city just announced that it’s looking at putting two measures on the ballot to increase taxes and fees. And based on its low ranking, it either needs to reduce spending and debts or raise revenues or both. My city refused to reduce debts, so suggesting tax increases came as...
It’s amazing what can happen in five years, especially when Gov. Gavin Newsom unilaterally imposed an overbearing pandemic lockdown on California’s school districts during this time period. And for an age group least likely to become ill with COVID-19. The coronavirus had a significant impact on local school district finances and they seemed to survive...
One would think that a few years after the COVID-19 lockdowns in California, things would settle down for school districts. But in Los Angeles County, for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2024, 10 of the districts moved up or down the annual fiscal rankings by double digits. It’s a time-consuming chore to go...
Out of the 79 school districts in Los Angeles County, 11 made double-digit moves in the fiscal rankings for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, over 2022. Was your district one of them? It is important for you to know the fiscal standing of your school district and where it stands among its peers....
Preparing school budgets is a monumental task. Julie Hamill, former trustee on the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District Board, recently recommended a great book on the subject. I’m sure most school trustees in California have heard of it. “Smarter Budgets, Smarter Schools” (2022) is by Nathan Levenson, and it was a great read. Levenson...
The 80 school districts in Los Angeles County had something unique happen during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021. Lowell Joint School District, which borders Orange County, moved out from under the authority of the Los Angeles County Department of Education to that of the OC the previous year. Consequently, Orange County went from...
California’s school districts, counties and cities are fiscally strapped. And the public employee unions just cut their noses off to spite their faces, adding to the consternation. As a member of the California Assembly, Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher felt that organizations and school districts should be held financially responsible for the bad acts of their employees who...
Imagine you’re looking at your ballot and you see a measure titled something like: “Better Roads and Schools – See Voter Guide for Details.” Would you take a few minutes to dig into the fine print? Or would you just vote “yes,” assuming it sounds like a good idea? Most people would expect the ballot to say...
It’s July. The California State Legislature has successfully met the budget submission deadline of June 15, and it was signed by the governor. There was one small fly in the ointment: how to cut $12 billion in spending? All while trying to provide $750 million in tax credits annually to one specific industry: Hollywood. Go...
The fiscal year of July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020, was one of the more memorable for California’s school districts. The COVID-19 pandemic would dramatically impact students in March of 2020. The Golden State had not seen anything like it since the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918, more than a century prior. This unique...
Waiting for Orange County’s 28 school districts to post their annual audited financial statements for the year ending June 30, 2024, was an exercise in patience. All but one completed their audits before Dec. 31, which is extremely commendable. But five districts didn’t post their accountability requirements until mid-year 2025. Two were as late as...
The second fiscal year after the implementation of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s coronavirus lockdown for San Diego County’s 18 cities saw Del Mar bounce back up in fiscal rankings (see “City of San Diego Fell Behind $191 Million in First Year of Pandemic,” May 15, 2024). The fiscal year ending June 30, 2021, also saw the...
The state of California issued its annual comprehensive financial report some 15 months after the customary due date, making it the last of the nation’s 50 states to complete this required task (see Long Overdue Financial Report for California Brings Bad News, March 18, 2024). Don’t think for a minute that the Franchise Tax Board...
I’ve become a big fan of The History Channel’s series “Alone” and “Alone Australia.” The goal is for one of ten contestants to survive the longest in the fall and winter months above the Arctic Circle or near the Antarctic Circle. Living off the land is not as easy as it seems, but the winning...
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