Budget Proposes a Mission College Campus, Library Addition at CSUN

In an otherwise lean year for the San Fernando Valley area, Gov. George Deukmejian’s proposed $39-billion state budget for fiscal 1987-88 contains one surprise--$8.5 million for a permanent campus for Mission College.

For more than 11 years, the college has sought a home for its students, who have attended classes in storefronts scattered around the northeast Valley.

“It’s great news,” Mission College President Lowell Erickson said. “With a permanent campus . . . the students will be able to partake of student services and instructional services all in one location.”

Erickson said he expected a summer ground breaking at a Sylmar site, with opening tentatively scheduled for the 1989 spring semester.

Campus Library Addition

Deukmejian’s no-growth budget, released on Thursday, proposed only one other major state construction project in the Valley area--a $14.9 million addition to the Oviatt Library at California State University, Northridge. Five-story east and west wings will be built onto the library, which has been experiencing severe space problems, according to Judith Elias, a university spokeswoman.

Money also was earmarked for once-a-day Amtrak train service through the Valley on a route between Santa Barbara and San Diego. The train will stop several times in the Valley area and at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.

On the downside, Deukmejian for the second straight year failed to set aside any parkland acquisition funds for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which buys open space in the hillsides surrounding the Valley and in Ventura County.

William P. Vaughn Jr., a state Department of Finance budget analyst, said there were “higher priorities” for state spending than land acquisition by the conservancy.

Constitutional Spending Lid

Valley legislators and their staffs said they were not surprised that there were few capital projects for the Valley area this year, citing a slowdown in the state’s economy and the constitutional spending lid approved by voters in 1979.

“It’s pretty much a hold-the-line year,” said Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda), who had lobbied the Adminstration for the Mission College money.

Hunt Braly, administrative assistant for Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia), said he figured that the year would be lean because the governor’s office called before the release of last year’s budget to ask if the senator wanted any projects financed. This year, there was no call, he said.

“It is an interesting contrast from last year,” Braly said. “It indicates the times we’re in.”

Even so, money for Mission College, which failed in the final days of the last legislative session, was included in the budget. Deukmejian did not include money for Mission College last year, then vetoed the appropriation last June after it was inserted into the budget by the Legislature. Supporters expected another major fight this year.

Enrollment Rising

Budget analyst Vaughn said the Finance Department reversed itself after it was shown that enrollment at Mission has steadily climbed and that the existing Valley community college campuses are too far away, especially for students who rely on public transportation.

The college experienced a 44% jump in enrollment this academic year, with 4,926 students attending classes in the fall, contrasted with 3,419 students during the same period last year, Erickson said.

The Valley’s transportation system is expected to get a boost with the addition of one train a day in each direction between Santa Barbara and downtown.

Seven trains now run between San Diego and Los Angeles daily. But, with an increase in passengers, the state has sought to add an eighth train that would originate in Santa Barbara. This can be accomplished within an existing $2-million-a-year appropriation the state earmarks for Amtrak to operate the trains, according to Warren Weber, chief of the office of rail services for the state Department of Transportation.

New Train in October

Weber said the new train, scheduled to begin by October, will stop in Simi Valley and Glendale, and probably in Panorama City and Chatsworth. He noted, however, that the morning train would not arrive downtown until 9:30 a.m., so “it’s not going to meet your needs as a commuter.”

For the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, Deukmejian’s budget offers no funds for buying land. Before the final budget figures were unveiled, Joseph Edmiston, executive director of the agency, acknowledged that, because of the constitutional spending limit, “it’s going to be a much tougher fight this year.”

There were no land acquisition funds for Edmiston’s agency in the governor’s budget last year, but he wound up winning funds for his top two acquisition priorities.