Budget Seeks Expansion at Colleges, Pier Replacement

Nearly $55 million for new buildings and equipment at Orange County universities and community colleges is included as part of the proposed $49.4-billion budget approved by lawmakers this week.

The proposed state budget also includes money to help replace the Huntington Beach Pier, as well as for expansion of Chino Hills State Park and for state employees to oversee the construction of the San Joaquin Hills toll road.

The massive, complicated spending plan was approved by the state Senate on Thursday, one day after it was ratified by the Assembly. It now goes to the desk of Gov. George Deukmejian, who can exercise his line-item veto power during the next few days before giving his final approval.

Much of the budgetary wrangling this year has been over how the state should divvy up $2.5 billion in extra funds among schools, mental health funding and other health and social-service programs. Deukmejian and legislative leaders were huddling Thursday to come up with a compromise formula for dispensing the windfall.

There is already agreement, however, on many brick-and-mortar projects that seem certain for final approval because they were originally proposed by Deukmejian in January and have been approved by the Legislature this week.

Orange County’s share for these projects includes millions of dollars for higher education, including nearly $26.8 million earmarked for the UC Irvine campus.

The amount has been set aside for the renovation of the UC Irvine Physical Sciences Building, to pay for working drawings for a new science library, to help expand the campus road system and to begin planning for a center to house engineering programs and a central computing facility.

At Cal State Fullerton, officials could receive $22.4 million to pay for working drawings and an addition to the McCarthy Hall science building, as well as $2.7 million for equipment to complete an addition to the Engineering Building.

Orange County’s community colleges would also get financial support. The governor’s budget proposal and the version approved by the Legislature calls for Rancho Santiago Community College in Santa Ana to receive $630,000 for new classroom equipment and preparations to expand the Centennial Education Center.

But lawmakers went beyond Deukmejian’s desires and inserted other community college requests, including new cafeterias for Irvine Valley and Saddleback colleges at a cost of more than $1 million each.

In addition, legislators decided that Orange Coast, Cypress and Fullerton community colleges should each receive maintenance warehouses--projects that total nearly $360,000.

More than $10 million was set aside for the purchase of land at Chino Hills State Park. And deliberations also yielded another $1.5 million to go toward the replacement of the Huntington Beach Pier, a project estimated to cost about $11 million.

On the transportation front, legislators set aside $1.6 million to help the Orange County office of the state Department of Transportation oversee the planning and construction of the proposed San Joaquin Hills toll road. The state has agreed to pay for this portion of the privately financed freeways because the roads must be constructed to state standards.

Other Orange County items in the state budget include:

- $10 million in roadbed improvements for the Amtrak San Diego line, which stops at four Orange County stations on its route between Los Angeles and San Diego.

- An undetermined amount of money to be funneled through three state agencies for a pilot project in Orange County to prevent substance abuse by pregnant women.

- Another undetermined allocation for a pilot project aimed at establishing conservatorships for senior citizens.