Budget Freeze Spares Arts, Others--for Now : City Government: Not all programs are protected, and even those included in the freeze could face cuts after the council determines the implications of its action.

Municipal spending on arts, parks and recreation, community services, libraries, lifeguards and social service programs and safety services would be frozen at current levels under a partial budget freeze decided upon Thursday by the San Diego City Council.

The council action directly undercuts a city manager’s proposal that would have eliminated arts funding and cut in half funding for parks, pools and libraries.

The council also agreed to spend any excess revenue accrued during the fiscal year beginning July 1 on more police and firefighters, a new jail and a new police substation.

However, council members at the Thursday budget workshop left many other programs unprotected. And, some council members reserved the right to later propose cuts in those supposedly safe programs.

The council also stopped short of saying where it would find new revenue to breach a budget shortfall that has been described as at least $13 million. That shortfall could be “much higher,” given the level of municipal service the council eventually funds, City Manager John Lockwood said after the meeting.

Thursday’s action means that service levels in those protected departments would fall in the coming year because demand, which is fueled by San Diego’s growing population, will outstrip current spending levels, Lockwood said.

Also, the frozen spending levels in those departments do not include money for millions of dollars in raises promised to employees, or for new expenses that were authorized during the current year but will not be funded until next year.

The council’s unscheduled priority-setting session drew loud applause from hundreds of artists, dancers, singers, musicians and other artists who jammed the council chambers to protest budget cuts that would have decimated city spending on the arts. Performers and others had gathered earlier at City Hall to protest a budget proposed by Lockwood that would have eliminated all $6 million in arts funding.

Lockwood drew the arts community’s ire by proposing that the council balance its budget by using hotel and motel tax revenue--the transient occupancy tax--that typically has been used to fund the arts and cultural promotion. The council Thursday voted to freeze TOT spending at current levels and use it for arts funding.

Council members directed Lockwood to determine the long-term impact that Thursday’s actions would have as the budget process goes forward.

“We have taken some straightforward and necessary actions today,” Councilman Bruce Henderson said. “Now we need to know what the implications are.” Lockwood will return to the council next week to explain what will happen to the rest of the budget if the select programs are frozen at existing levels.

Lockwood said departments protected at current funding levels would account for about $260 million of the $444 million in anticipated revenue during the coming fiscal year. But many parts of the budget that were not specifically protected by the council Thursday can’t be tinkered with because of mandated programs, Lockwood said.

Mayor Maureen O’Connor, who on Wednesday called for an across-the-board budget freeze, described Thursday’s council action as “three-quarters of a loaf. . . . We’ve got a good start now on the budget process. We have a direction now.”

But Councilwoman Judy McCarty questioned the wisdom of agreeing to freeze parts of the budget without first addressing the effect on the rest of the budget. “I’ll vote for this with much trepidation,” McCarty said. “I think this is quite worrisome.”

Councilmen Bob Filner and Ron Roberts failed to get additional funds needed to keep the police force’s current ratio of 1.68 uniformed officers per 1,000 residents. That proposal drew support from Councilman Wes Pratt and McCarty.

Roberts said the city has an obligation to keep the ratio at 1.68, given the city’s longstanding claim that drugs and crime have created a “crisis.”