Counties Try New, Polite Tack With Sacramento

Counties have this new strategy, see.

For years, counties basically took one approach in dealing with the governor and Legislature. They begged for more money and complained, often loudly, when they didn’t get it.

But county officials figure the strategy of complaining all the time hasn’t really worked.

Evidence of that came when Gov. George Deukmejian introduced his new budget on Jan. 10 and it called for $838 million in cuts to county programs. Deukmejian underscored the point during a closed-door, 1 1/2-hour meeting with county officials Tuesday afternoon. They said he spent much of the time complaining about the way county partisans have bad-mouthed him over the years.

So there is this new approach.

From now on, county supervisors are going to be good guys, play up their role as members of the state family, look at the bright side, things like that.

County officials come to Sacramento around this time every year to plead their case with the governor and the Legislature. This year, San Francisco County Supervisor Willie B. Kennedy, president of the County Supervisors Assn. of California, told reporters during a press briefing Wednesday that county officials will avoid direct appeals for funds.

“We aren’t here begging. We aren’t asking for anything. They always say we only come here when we want something. We want to change that,” Kennedy said. “We are here to cooperate, not fight.”

The only problem is, reality just won’t go away. Try as they might to stick to the new strategy, county officials just can’t get very far away from the fact that they are in a severe financial pinch.

“We are in a box. When you are hurting, you do complain,” conceded Roland Starn, a supervisor from Stanislaus County.

One county, Butte, seems to be heading for bankruptcy. It would have gone broke last year but for a last-minute bailout from the state. Los Angeles County has been forced to let trauma centers and community mental health clinics close. County jails are so overcrowded that most counties are under a court order to fix the problem.

The financial pinch stems from a variety of factors that counties just can’t shake: the still dramatic impact on their property tax base by the 1978 tax-cutting measure Proposition 13, annexations and incorporations that result in some of their most valuable real estate taken over by cities and the soaring costs of providing medical services to the poor.

In her comments to reporters, Kennedy tried mightily to avoid the litany of problems facing counties and to talk instead about some of the good things Deukmejian has done for them. She praised the governor for signing a major trial court funding bill that will help counties finance operations of the courts. She applauded him for his handling of the Oct. 17 Northern California earthquake and noted his support for legislation reforming the workers’ compensation system.

Still, she appeared to be on shaky ground when pressed to give a report card on Deukmejian’s overall impact on counties during his seven years as governor.

“I can’t say it’s been that good on the whole,” she said quietly, seeming to wish the question hadn’t been asked. “I’d say, not even 50-50.” When pressed to say where she would put Deukmejian’s policy toward counties on a scale of 1 to 10, she started to say 4 but checked herself. In tune with the new strategy she appeared conciliatory. She said she would give him a 5.