Senate Votes $110 Million to Aid Counties

Without dissent, the Senate on Friday passed legislation to give California’s financially struggling counties an additional $110 million in financial aid.

On a 39-0 vote, the bill was sent to the Assembly, where easy passage was predicted before the Legislature’s planned adjournment at midnight.

The legislation contains unrestricted lump-sum payments to each of California’s 58 counties. Local officials said they need the money to prevent further cuts in law enforcement, health, welfare, library and other programs hit hard by the squeeze on county budgets in recent years.

Thanksgiving Mailing

Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), who sponsored the bill in the Senate, said that “probably the checks will be in the mail by Thanksgiving.”

Gov. George Deukmejian had agreed to support the measure during a meeting Thursday with legislative leaders.

In addition to the $110 million funding increase for all counties, the legislation also appropriates $8 million for Deukmejian’s Rural Renaissance program--something insisted on by the governor. The money would be spent on rural capital construction projects.

Originally, extra money for the counties was put into the $40.5-billion state budget by the Legislature. But it was vetoed by Deukmejian in July because he felt the formula for dispersing the financial aid was weighted too heavily toward California’s large urban counties.

Competing Interests

Bergeson said the legislation was the result of a “carefully balanced compromise” that weighs the competing interests of urban and rural counties. “It’s fair to both large and small counties,” Bergeson said.

The new formula gives Los Angeles County $30 million. Grants to other Southern California counties break down this way: Orange, $6.1 million; San Diego, $6.2 million; San Bernardino, $2.8 million; Riverside, $3.4 million; Ventura, $1.5 million; Santa Barbara, $932,000; Kern, $1.5 million, and Imperial, $788,000.

The legislation falls short of the permanent funding solution financially struggling counties had sought, but it does set in principle a commitment by the state to increase aid to county governments.

Counties complain that the costs of state-mandated health and welfare programs are rising faster than the local tax revenues available to pay for them.

Pressure on Funding

The resulting squeeze puts pressure on funding available for purely local programs, like operating firefighting and sheriff’s operations or running county courts.

After the Senate vote on the $110-million funding bill, Larry E. Naake, a lobbyist for the County Supervisors Assn. of California, said counties were generally pleased. “It’s not going to take care of all the problems, but it’s a start,” he said.

While the $110 million is a one-shot boost, the bill addresses the long-term county financing problem by providing an annual appropriation of $15 million for counties that cannot keep up with the rising cost of state-mandated programs.

The Legislature, hours before its scheduled adjournment for the year, also was considering several other bills to ease the financial crunch facing California’s counties.

$350-Million Shift

One bill would transfer responsibility for supporting Municipal and Superior courts from counties to the state, a $350-million shift that would free up county dollars for other programs.

Backers of the legislation, strongly supported by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), reported that they were close to agreement on the complicated courts funding package.

The bill also would add 104 Municipal, Superior and appellate court judges.

The measure, as it took shape late Friday, would make key “reforms” in the judicial system sought by Deukmejian. One of the major unresolved problems centered on Deukmejian-backed changes in the rules about the way juries are selected.

Bipartisan Agreement

There was said to be bipartisan agreement on the proposal for court expansion.

Another county funding bill, which would shift an additional one-quarter of a cent in the state sales tax to counties, was said to be in considerably more trouble.

That bill, carried by Assemblyman Dominic L. Cortese (D-San Jose), would direct that the additional $650 million in revenues be spent on county health programs for indigent Californians not covered by private or government medical insurance programs.

Legislation also was pending that would appropriate $9.9 million for Los Angeles County’s financially struggling network of emergency trauma care centers.