CITY BUDGETS : A SPECIAL REPORT : A Balancing Act Between Less Money, Rising Costs

The Irvine City Council is considering new and increased fees, with concerts at Irvine Meadows and boxing at the Irvine Marriott among the targets for the levies. In Huntington Beach, some parking rates are going up. It’s the same story all over Orange County.

With few exceptions, cities wrestling with 1987-88 budgets that refuse to balance are being forced by reductions in anticipated sales and property tax revenues to hike fees and tap reserves--a sign that the county’s economy is slowing down.

Most of the county’s 26 cities still are expecting to take in more taxes in the 1987-88 fiscal year than in the current year--4% to 8% more, in most cases. But city officials say that that rate of growth is only about half of the previous year’s and is not enough to cover rapidly escalating expenses.

There are a few bright spots. Santa Ana, for example, has managed to find enough money to launch a new program to spruce up neighborhoods.

But, faced with a state law requiring balanced budgets, most city councils are struggling to maintain services at current levels.

Garden Grove Assistant City Manager Mike Fenderson summed up the situation described by many of his counterparts in other cities when he said: “We see the economy weakening . . . I see where serious problems will have to be addressed in the future.”

Here is a city-by-city look, in alphabetical order, at how the budget-balancing is going at city halls across the county.

Los Alamitos Largest Increase to Go for New Police Officers

The City Council is to vote tonight on a $6-million budget for fiscal 1987-88, up from this year’s $5.9 million.

“It’s basically a status quo budget,” Director of Administrative Services Gerard Goedhart said. “We’ve given the council what we thought was a good, responsive budget, and the council was pleased. This isn’t Fat City, but we’re happy.”

Most of the $271,000 increase in the operating budget will pay for four new police officers hired in mid-year and an $80,000-Hewlett Packard computer system for the Police Department, he said.

The capital-improvements budget will be down from $2.3 million to $2.1 million. Of that, $880,000 will go to continuing work on Los Alamitos Boulevard, and $350,000 will go toward expanding the city’s community center.

The city’s expanding economic base is expected to provide the sales and property tax revenue to finance the increases, Goedhart said. Sales tax revenue is expected to increase from $1.7 million to more than $1.8 million, or about 7%. Property taxes are expected to yield $734,000, up from the 1986-87 total of $684,000.

Los Alamitos is looking into doubling the fees for business licenses. He said the fees, which range from $50 to $500, have remained unchanged for 10 years.

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Marcida Dodson, La Mont Jones Jr., Lanie Jones, Ray Perez, Mark I. Pinsky, David Reyes, Bob Schwartz, Nancy Wride and Jonathan Weisman.