For years, Orange County sheriff deputies and local police departments have dominated municipal budgets, often making up over half of most cities annual general fund spending and typically serving as the largest department.  

Now, city and county leaders are grappling with how to afford raises for their most expensive employees amid growing structural budget deficits, with stagnant or shrinking tax revenue amid rising costs. 

In the past, police unions haven’t often had to fight publicly for raises in Orange County, with most city councils quietly approving a new contract with raises every few years and moving on. 

But many Orange County cities and the county government itself are grappling with increasingly imbalanced budgets, often floated through reserves and other one-time funding – like property sales – to cover ongoing expenses that keep growing each year. 

[Read: How Rocky Are Orange County’s Municipal Budgets?]

Those growing deficits are prompting some tough conversations for city and county leaders as union contracts wrap up, with some municipalities offering limited raises while others contemplate whether they can afford a major hike at all. 

Over the past decade, a Voice of OC review found that as many city budgets continued expanding, their spending on the police department has increased at an almost equal rate. 

While the size of Anaheim’s general fund has grown 85% since the 2015 budget, the police department budget has grown 84% according to city budget records. 

Cities like Costa Mesa and Garden Grove saw similar growth, with their police growing at a rate slightly below that of the general fund. 

In other cities, the police department budget grew faster than the general fund. 

Irvine’s spending on police nearly doubled over the past 10 years according to budget records, outpacing the city’s general fund growth by 10%. 

A small number of cities also saw their police budgets grow at a significantly slower rate than their general fund, including Santa Ana and Huntington Beach. 

Meanwhile, a host of cities are asking voters to increase taxes at the November ballot box – including sales and hotel taxes – as city officials struggle to keep municipal budgets afloat. 

[Read: Election 2026: OC Cities Ask for Tax Increases, Term Limits and More]

At the same time cities increased their spending, violent crime has dropped over the past ten years, with an increase in drug offenses in that same time frame according to countywide data from the California Department of Justice. 

The argument from most police union leaders has been the same for over a decade – without raises, officers will go to neighboring cities, leaving the police department understaffed and forcing an overreliance on overtime. 

That argument was on full display in Huntington Beach during public comment at a September city council meeting.

Several police officers shared concerns that without a raise, they’d begin losing officers to other departments as they asked for an 18% raise over the next three years. 

Sgt. William Brownlee, who manages the Huntington Beach Police Department’s recruitment unit, noted that many of the officers they hire live outside the county to save money and that if they can take a job that’s 15 minutes away instead of two to three hours that offers better pay, they will. 

“Compensation and benefits matter when experienced officers decide where to work,” Brownlee said. “We cannot ignore this reality. Our current compensation ranks 12th among Orange County law enforcement agencies. Remaining competitive means attracting qualified recruits.” 

But several city council members brought up concerns with the proposed raise amid growing budget deficits, with Mayor Casey McKeon encouraging his colleagues to vote down the contract amid the competition between cities for officers. 

“Each city then competes and gives higher raises … it’s not sustainable,” McKeon said. “At some point, some city has to have strong financial prudence.” 

Council members voted 4-3 to move forward with the contract.
 

Read: Huntington Beach Approves Police Raises Amid Budget Deficit Projections

The Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs is one of the most powerful unions in Orange County politics, and spent over $1.8 million in the past four years on ads supporting four out of five county supervisors. 

Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento voted against the sheriffs contract in 2023, and this year the sheriffs spent over $116,000 opposing his reelection and spent $63,000 advertising one of his opponents. 

They have not moved forward on county supervisors’ offer for a one year contract with a 3% increase, a contract several of the county’s other public employee unions accepted. 

Read: Orange County’s Cold War on Labor: Frozen Vacancies and Limited Raises

Those raises come even as the county is staring down growing structural budget deficits, with the last budget county supervisors approved relying on around $75 million in one time funding to balance out, most of which came out of the county’s reserves. 

OC Supervisor Don Wagner said there’s no way the county can offer something better. 

“I believe we have hit a ceiling,” Wagner wrote in a Sept. 10 statement. “I don’t have any idea which of my colleagues share that opinion. 

Supervisor Janet Nguyen declined to comment on the raises but said she “always supported” the sheriff’s deputies, while Supervisors Vicente Sarmiento and Doug Chaffee declined to comment altogether. 

Supervisor Katrina Foley did not return requests for comment and the sheriff’s deputies union has spent nearly $286,000 advertising her campaign this year alone. 

The sheriff’s union did not respond to requests for comment and haven’t disclosed spending any money on candidates for county supervisor since the end of the June primary, according to filings as of Tuesday. 

The sheriff deputies’ pay increases can also hit hard for over a dozen cities that contract with the sheriff’s department, including Dana Point, San Clemente and Mission Viejo, who regularly see their service contracts bumped up to keep up with raises. 

City leaders for all the cities that contracted with the sheriff’s department in 2017 launched a study to look at leaving or possibly consolidating services, but the results were never made public. 

Read: 13 Cities Pressure OC Sheriff on Contract Costs

While San Clemente’s general fund only grew around 17% over the past 10 years according to budget records, their sheriff’s contract has nearly doubled in that same time frame. 

Nearly one third of Dana Point’s entire general fund goes to their sheriff’s contract, a number that has remained steady over the past decade. 

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs supported all county supervisors campaigns. They spent money against Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento’s campaign. We regret the error. 

Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.