Junior College Projects, Huntington Beach Pier Work Cut From Budget

Gov. George Deukmejian’s blue pencil knicked Orange County on Friday as he vetoed more than $4 million earmarked for community college projects and the restoration of the Huntington Beach Pier before signing the state’s $49.3-billion budget.

Despite the cuts, the governor left intact millions more set aside for major renovation and construction at UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton, as well as acquisition of Chino Hills State Park.

In addition, Deukmejian also used his line-item powers to restore a formula first written into law by state Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) to help equalize funding levels for Orange County and others that have been traditionally under-funded in mental health programs.

Seymour, who holds a key position on the Legislature’s budget conference committee, said Friday that he has mixed feelings about what the new budget holds for Orange County.

He said he was disappointed that Deukmejian had deleted $1.5 million set aside for the restoration of the Huntington Beach Pier, a project that is estimated to cost about $11 million overall.

He also lamented the fact that Deukmejian also cut large appropriations, requested by the Legislature, that would have meant added brick and mortar for local community colleges.

Gone is $2.4 million earmarked for new cafeterias at Saddleback and Irvine Valley colleges. Also deleted was $266,000 worth of new maintenance buildings or warehouses for Cypress, Orange Coast and Fullerton colleges.

Deukmejian also took about $100 million raised by Proposition 99--the increase in the state’s tobacco tax--out of the budget for trauma care, an undetermined portion of which would have gone for the operation of the trauma unit at UCI Medical Center.

Orange County and four other counties were dropped from a proposed perinatal substance-abuse pilot project planned for nine counties.

Meanwhile, the governor left intact millions of dollars in new construction projects at UCI and Cal State Fullerton.

Almost $27 million has been earmarked for the UCI campus for the renovation of the 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 the central computing facility.

Another $22.4 million was set aside for a long-awaited 100,000-square-foot addition to Cal State Fullerton’s McCarthy Hall. The addition will allow overcrowded labs to move out of the poorly ventilated building, the first permanent structure opened on the Fullerton campus in 1963.

The new building, which will be connected by a second story foot-bridge to McCarthy Hall, will dramatically improve science programs, according to Jim Diefenderfer, dean of the School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. “We’ve worked to get funding for the science addition for six years. . . . This new building will allow us to provide the very best undergraduate science education in Orange County.”

Also approved in the budget was $636,290 for conversion of unused classroom buildings at Saddleback Community College into a satellite campus for Cal State Fullerton. Saddleback Community College District Chancellor Richard Sneed praised the satellite funding as “historic.” Classes will begin in the converted buildings Aug. 28.

“This is the culmination of three years of work to bring graduate and upper-division programs to south Orange County,” he said. “The beginnings will be small, but the demand is great, and our next step will be to work toward permanent facilities in conjunction with the university.”

Orange County, which still faces a budget deficit of at least $24 million for the current fiscal year, is hoping to receive about $20 million from the state to erase the shortfall. But that grant is still unresolved in Sacramento.

Assistant County Administrative Officer John Sibley said Friday that he expects to hear about the state grant next week. Without it, county officials have warned that they might have to severely cut county services and lay off employees.

Part of the governor’s $489 million in budget cuts came when Deukmejian slashed $50 million out of the $75 million that the Legislature wanted to distribute in extra money for mental health funding this year. That left $25 million in excess aid, the same amount the governor proposed in January.

With that cut, Orange County stands to gain between about $2 million extra this year to bolster its overburdened programs to care for the mentally ill. But that amount is about half of what the Legislature had in mind for the county.

But while he cut the number of dollars flowing to Orange County, he also took steps to make sure that it and other under-funded areas in the state made some long-term gains to catch up in mental health funding with such areas as Los Angeles, Marin, San Francisco and Napa counties.

Deukmejian restored a formula, written into state law three years ago, that directs that at least 50% of all increases in the mental health budget for unrestricted programs be given to Orange and other under-funded counties.

Seymour said the mental health cuts were “bad news,” but restoring the special funding formula makes sure that “whatever Orange County receives, it is receiving its fair share.”

Linda Boyd, the county’s administrator for mental health programs, said her department has tentatively calculated its share of the extra money at about $1.4 million, a number that is slightly below what is suggested by a legislative analysis showing $2 million.

If the $1.4-million figure holds true, she said, the extra money wouldn’t even be enough to allow the mental health programs to keep up with increases in labor and contract costs. “It doesn’t even allow us to stay even,” she said.