Proposed County Jail Booking Fee Alarms Police Officials : Budget: Supervisors will hear a plan to reduce the shortfall by charging cities and other bodies $75.50 per prisoner. Board spokesmen put the blame on state cuts.

As county officials huddled Monday to patch together a budget in time for a scheduled vote next week, law enforcement leaders from across the county were expressing deep concern about one suggestion for trimming a shortfall of as much as $46 million.

The proposal, which supervisors will take up during a public hearing Wednesday, would levy a $75.50 fee against police bodies--including those from cities, school districts, colleges and universities--for each prisoner brought to the county jail system for processing. If approved, the fee is expected to have its most drastic effect on cities. Officials from a dozen Orange County municipalities said Monday that the effect in their areas could be devastating.

“We are not a rich city by any means, and that money would have to come from somewhere,” said Garden Grove Police Chief John Robertson, who estimated that the fees could cost his city $380,000 a year. “If it came from the Police Department, that would be approximately eight police officer positions.”

In Santa Ana, where 20,000 to 22,000 prisoners are booked into jail each year, the proposed fee could cost the city $1.6 million a year, Santa Ana Police Lt. Robert Helton estimated.

Even in smaller cities with fewer arrests, the expense would be burdensome, officials said. Brea officials, for instance, said the fees would cost them between $10,000 and $15,000 a year, while Buena Park Police Chief Richard M. Tefank estimated that the plan would cost that city $140,000 annually.

“It would be very serious. I don’t think it would bankrupt us, but it’s just adding to the costs that are continually being passed on by the state and the county,” said Los Alamitos Police Chief James Guess. “The cities like us with very limited revenue sources are being held hostage by this,” he added.

Only a few cities, those with adequate jail facilities to handle their own prisoners, would be relatively unscathed. In Newport Beach, San Clemente and Anaheim, police officials believe they could absorb the fees without much problem.

County officials are aware of the cities’ opposition to the proposal, but are confronted with a bleak budget picture for this year.

The state budget, especially after Gov. George Deukmejian reshaped it with his veto, slashed funding to counties and left Orange County facing an estimated $46 million in red ink.

“We all just feel frustrated by the state handing down these cuts,” said Ronald S. Rubino, who met with supervisorial aides Monday afternoon to outline the state of the county’s budget. “It’s unfair, but necessary, that we look at some ways to increase revenue.”

While the state trimmed funds for an array of county programs, it also passed along authority for the county to raise fees in new areas. The largest potential windfall was in the area of property tax collection, where Rubino said the county can expect to get an additional $14 million next year by charging other public entities for collecting their taxes.

Jail booking fees are less lucrative, but still are expected to give the county an additional $4.1 million to $5.9 million a year. Unlike the property tax collection fees, which will go into effect automatically unless the board specifically exempts them, the jail-booking fee must be approved by a majority vote of the supervisors.

Supervisors are being asked to institute the $75.50 fee beginning in January.

The vote is set for Wednesday, but some city law enforcement agencies and others are asking the board to consider postponing action until the full implications of the fee can be examined.

“We recognize that the county’s having some problems with its budget and that the state passed the buck without passing the buck,” said Bill Hodge, executive director of the Orange County chapter of the California League of Cities. “But we do have some concerns of our own.”

Times staff writer Allison Samuels contributed to this report.