Orange County to Face Possible Layoff of 400 : Defeat of Trial Court Funding Measure to Leave a $35-Million Budget Shortfall

Orange County’s hopes of averting hundreds of layoffs and the death of several programs suffered a major setback Thursday when the Legislature in Sacramento cut trial court funding from the 1988-89 state budget.

County officials were hoping that a trial court funding measure would generate between $15 million and $20 million for Orange County during the new fiscal year, which starts today.

Without it, they said, the county is expected to run $35 million below what is needed to maintain current staff and services.

A revenue shortfall of that amount represents an across-the-board reduction in the county government of about 10%, said John Sibley, program manager for the county administrative office. County department heads said such a reduction could mean at least 400 layoffs, as well as the elimination of key programs in areas ranging from law enforcement to health and welfare.

“That’s the only thing I know of that might have had a big impact,” Sibley said Thursday. “As it stands right now, I don’t see any way to avoid some program and service level cuts.”

Because there is no other significant revenue available to help balance the budget, Sibley said, there will have to be cuts in the budget.

The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to hold budget hearings late this month and adopt a final version sometime in August. A tentative $2.2-billion county budget was adopted Wednesday.

Under the court funding plan stricken from the state budget, counties would have had the option of letting the state assume the cost of operating the county courts. In return, the county would give the state all of its revenue from fines and forfeitures imposed by the court.

State Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) was among the plan’s supporters.

“I think the counties are going to see some difficult times ahead,” Bergeson said after the Senate passed the budget Thursday afternoon. “Trial court funding was vitally important to Orange County and others that are desperate.”

County managers recently asked all of the department heads to submit budgets 10% below the amount needed to maintain current service levels.

In the district attorney’s office, officials said it would mean the loss of attorneys who handle cases that the county is legally required to prosecute, such as misdemeanor traffic citations. They said the state attorney general might be forced to assume the job in such cases.

County officials said they also would have to close several special units assigned to target such crimes as gang activity and child abuse.

In the Social Services Agency, which handles county welfare programs, officials calculate that 180 employees would have to be laid off, resulting in an operations slowdown. And in the Health Care Agency, 80 positions would be in jeopardy, as would be programs for children and jail inmates.

In the state budget approved Thursday, said Orange County lobbyist Dennis Carpenter, allocations for health care and social services generally were limited to last year’s levels. Because the workload is increasing, county officials said that funding level actually represents a reduction.

“You just lose a little bit more ground because obviously the cost of doing business for us continues to increase,” said Ronald DiLuigi, business manager for the Health Care Agency. “We don’t get a break.”

In the state budget adopted Thursday, funds were provided for Caltrans’ new Orange County office.

Other funding for Orange County included: $2.3 million in improvements for Chino Hills State Park; $622,000 for Crystal Cove State Park improvements; $7 million to UC Irvine for science equipment, renovation and designs for a science library and campus road; $14.7 million for cancer research equipment and a psychiatric inpatient facility at UCI Medical Center in Orange; $198,000 for Coast Community College District; $6.8 million for classrooms and improvements for Rancho Santiago Community College District, and $5.2 million for road improvements, equipment and buildings for Saddleback Community College District.