Orange County has paid off the last of $1 billion worth of bonds it raised to emerge from bankruptcy, the Orange County Register reported on Saturday. Twenty-two years after declaring bankruptcy, the county’s repayment totaled nearly $1.5 billion. Repayments averaged $68 million a year — money that could have funded street improvements, libraries, health care and myriad other public services. The county still has about $20 million to pay off to various cities and agencies that have a separate repayment deal.
