Anaheim Looking for Revenues in Face of $5-Million Shortfall

Faced with a $5-million deficit over the next two years, the Anaheim City Council during the next two weeks will look for ways to raise revenues, or it may have to slash municipal services, possibly including police and fire protection, officials said Friday.

During a 3 1/2-hour workshop with City Manager William O. Talley on Friday afternoon, the council learned that a decline in sales tax revenue and a reduction in federal aid have led to a shortfall in the $97.4 million needed for routine city services.

Councilwoman Miriam Kaywood said the deficit is no cause for alarm. “I think there are some choices the council will have to make. The figures are not firm, and we’ll be getting more figures as they come in,” she said.

“We’ve just got to come up with a conclusion on how to raise that money,” Councilman Irv Pickler said.

After completing a budget review this week, Talley said he had already shaved $15.6 million from funding requests submitted by city departments for the 1987/88 budget, and $16 million from proposed spending the following year.

Kaywood acknowledged that Talley’s cuts of departmental requests were “the worst we’ve ever had it.”

“This is one of the most difficult budgets I’ve been involved with in nearly 30 years of public service,” Talley said in a written statement submitted Friday.

The deficit does not include the cost of long-term projects such as the planned expansion and refurbishment of Anaheim Convention Center and a “modernization” of the Police Department, city spokeswoman Sheri Erlewine said.

Of Anaheim’s $457.6 million total budget for 1987/88, about $360.2 million is reserved for programs or departments, such as utilities, whose finances cannot be reduced, Erlewine said.