Spending Study Cheers County Proponents of Incorporation

In what seems likely to become ammunition for several North County community groups now gearing up for incorporation drives, a San Diego County study released Tuesday said the county is not spending as much on city-type services in urban unincorporated areas as it receives in taxes and fees from those communities.

The study, ordered in September by the Board of Supervisors, said residents of those urbanizing areas would have more money for local services such as law enforcement and street repairs if they voted to form new, small cities in areas where the county now provides the government.

At the same time, the report said the county could not do more than it is doing for the unincorporated areas--including both urban and rural communities--until the state’s rules for divvying up local tax revenue are changed.

But a legislative solution, because of the length of time involved, would probably come too late to stop the drives toward cityhood in several communities along the North County coast.

Representatives of incorporation efforts in Solana Beach and the San Dieguito communities of Encinitas, Leucadia and Cardiff, who have long argued that the county is spending too little for municipal services in their communities, said they weren’t surprised by the study’s findings.

Bob Bonde, a Cardiff resident and spokesman for the North Coast Incorporation Coalition, said the results make it less likely that the current incorporation drives will have to overcome a major doubt that plagued the last effort in June, 1982. That campaign was hampered by the question of whether the new city could afford to provide the same level of services that the county was giving.

Jack Moore, a leader of the campaign to incorporate Solana Beach, said he was pleased that the county report provided general conclusions supporting a more specific study that he did of Solana Beach. That report showed that Solana Beach residents paid $2.3 million in taxes and fees but received less than $1.4 million worth of services.

“We want out, now,” Moore said, adding that he was skeptical that the county would be able to change state laws governing the distribution of vehicle license fees, sales taxes and other monies.

“The politicians keep promising that ‘we’re going to give you more services,’ ” Moore said. “Sure, if they could get more money, there would be more in the county pot for unincorporated areas. But as it stands now, the county doesn’t have a surplus, and there isn’t any more money for the unincorporated areas.”

The county’s study, done by an economist in the Department of Planning and Land Use, will be the basis for a Board of Supervisors’ conference next Tuesday. The conference will be the first of six held to determine the best role for the county in the unincorporated areas.

The report said the county is receiving $45.1 million a year from the urbanizing unincorporated areas and spending $37.7 million on municipal services for those areas. For rural areas, the county is collecting $9.3 million and spending $20.4 million.

According to the study, the county receives $39 million a year less than it needs to provide the same level of regional and municipal services to the unincorporated communities that is available to San Diego County residents who live in cities.