Countywide : Severe Budget Cuts Proposed for Panel
Projections of a 40% to 50% cut in the $12-million annual budget for the county’s top transportation planning agency portend a bleak future for improving traffic congestion in Orange County.
Jim Keenan, chief financial officer of the Orange County Transportation Commission, presented various scenarios for the 1990-91 budget at the panel’s meeting in Santa Ana. Each of them involves serious belt-tightening, resulting in spending plans totaling between $5.7 million and $6.6 million.
The commission oversees traffic priorities countywide and, through armies of consultants, readies some transportation projects for construction by other agencies such as Caltrans and the traffic departments of individual cities.
Most of the reduction proposals call for completing projects already under way and not starting new ones. The reason for that is partly that state and federal grant money is becoming scarce, officials said, and partly because the OCTC staff is already spread too thin.
In addition, the commission expects to make significant withdrawals from cash reserves and from funds previously earmarked for the Santa Ana Freeway transit way, a special ramp reserved for buses and car pools.
A public hearing on the proposed budget is scheduled for June 11.
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