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.

La Habra Spending Will Continue at a ‘Maintenance Level’

The increases in city spending for fiscal 1987-88 over the current fiscal year are just keeping up with inflation, said Park L. Morse, assistant city manager. The projected $10.4 million to be spent on the operating side of the city’s $19.5-million budget in the coming fiscal year will buy only what $9.7 million bought this year.

“It’s very much of a maintenance budget,” Morse pointed out.

He said he hopes the expected 4.1% increase in sales tax revenue and the projected 13.2% increase in property tax revenue will finance the budget increase.

La Habra took in $3.6 million from sales taxes and $3.3 million from property taxes this year. Those taxes are expected to yield $3.8 million and $3.6 million, respectively, in fiscal 1987-88.

The city’s capital improvements expenditures will rise from $2.6 million in fiscal 1986-87 to $9.1 million in 1987-88, Morse said. The Cypress storm drain project, on Cypress Avenue north of 4th Street, will take a large chunk of that--about $1.298 million.

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.