KIDS THESE DAYS:

Last week Costa Mesa Mayor Pro Tem Wendy Leece proposed a tax on fireworks sales to cover the cost of policing the city during the July Fourth celebration period.

The initial report was that this tax would be 20% but Leece was later quoted in the Daily Pilot as saying it probably would not have to be that high.

The idea was endorsed by Mayor Allan Mansoor and opposed by council members Gary Monahan and Katrina Foley. Mayor Eric Bever was not at the meeting March 10.

My first thought was that Leece and Mansoor are either ignorant or insensitive. They cannot be both.

Then it hit me. Of course Mansoor and Leece like this idea: Mansoor has no kids and Leece’s are all past the fundraising ages. Monahan and Foley, however, are still schlepping half-melted “World’s Finest” chocolate bars around in their minivans.

You see, anyone who has had to raise money for youth organizations since last summer is aware of how incredibly difficult it is to do so in this economy. So it’s only natural that Mansoor and Leece see nothing wrong with taxing kids while Foley and Monahan resist it.

But this fireworks tax is bad for other reasons, too.

First, it is arrogant and insensitive to raise taxes on anything in a deep recession. The Legislature just did that, and it is likely to cost many politicians their jobs over the next couple of years. At least I hope so.

Second, this tax is nothing more than a veiled attempt to drive a stake through the heart of the fireworks program — something Leece has wanted to do for awhile now. With a high tax on fireworks, many youth groups would stop selling them.

Third, the cost associated with policing the safe and sane style that is sold in the booths by parents is not what costs the city most of the money required to manage the event each year. That expense is due to the dwindling number of local pinheads who shoot off illegal fireworks in the days leading up to the July Fourth.

I know the scofflaws are dwindling because Bever told me so after a candidate forum last fall.

Fourth, if we really want to start making people pay for extra police services due to misbehavior by the public, I am going to insist that before we tax fireworks, we start adding a new tax to alcohol to help pay for the damage that drunks create around town every day, unlike the two or three days a year attributed to fireworks.

Alcohol is responsible for large numbers of serious auto accidents and is a factor in many domestic abuse crimes, just to name a couple. Yet, I don’t hear anyone calling for an additional tax on booze to help pay for the cops who have to separate couples in their homes or separate drivers from their cars because they have been drinking.

The cost to the Costa Mesa Police Department to manage the alcohol-related crimes in town makes the estimate $29,000 fireworks expense look like pocket change.

I warned last year about electing people who are not parents. So it was no surprise to me that Mansoor is all over this proposal. Leece, however, is a bit of a mystery because she is not too many years removed from the fundraising days.

The deciding vote is Bever, who also does not have any kids. But something tells me that this will be one case in which father doesn’t have to know best and he will vote against it.

STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and a freelance writer. Send story ideas to [email protected].