{"id":393381,"date":"2026-07-10T13:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T13:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/393381\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T13:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T13:30:08","slug":"orange-countys-biggest-civic-news-as-public-budgets-face-bleak-futures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/393381\/","title":{"rendered":"Orange County\u2019s Biggest Civic News as Public Budgets Face Bleak Futures"},"content":{"rendered":"

City officials across Orange County are struggling to balance municipal budgets<\/a>, with some facing multi-million dollar structural deficits \u2013 forcing some cities to issue spending cuts, hiring freezes and floating the idea of tax increases.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Budget deficits are a growing trend that\u2019s also hitting the County of Orange, which is grappling with a $75 million structural deficit \u2013 a gap largely filled by leaning on reserves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lingering budget gaps are forcing some cities to rethink how to boost revenue, with Huntington Beach officials looking to sell advertising spaces on lifeguard towers<\/a> and make money off merch to reverse the city\u2019s spending gap.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Surf City officials are also considering a nearly $15 million overhaul to the sports complex as some council members say the move will drum up much-needed tax revenue<\/a>, while others question just how fiscally responsible the proposal is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After slashing spending and dismantling five city commissions to help balance the budget, Santa Ana City Council members are asking voters this November to make a temporary sales tax hike permanent<\/a> as staff say they still expect a deficit even if the tax hike remains.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Old Town Orange. Credit: ROSHNEE MOORTHY, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, city council members in Orange are looking to fine property owners for unkempt buildings<\/a> \u2013 targeting things like overgrown shrubs and deteriorating paint in an effort they say will curb blight and vagrancy as the city struggles with an ongoing budget deficit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Orange City Council members also extended a massage parlor moratorium<\/a> for nearly two years as city officials allege some of the businesses are home to illicit sexual activity and drugs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Local police departments are increasingly using drones<\/a> as licence plate readers and surveillance cameras proliferate \u2013 raising privacy concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After seeing a decline in people sleeping on the streets, Newport Beach officials switched homeless shelter services from Costa Mesa to Huntington Beach<\/a> \u2013 losing 10 shelter beds in the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lake Forest City Council members signed off on a warehouse development<\/a> after nearby residents have been raising noise and pollution concerns for years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City officials across Orange County are struggling to balance municipal budgets, with some facing multi-million dollar structural deficits…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,27232,152829,116840,158244],"class_list":["post-393381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-huntington-beach-city-council","tag-orange-budget-deficit","tag-orange-county-budgets-2026","tag-santa-ana-budget"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}