County Sees Gain With the Pain in Governor’s Bare-Bones Budget

In the short run, it will hurt the poor, students, drinkers and car owners.

But, in the long run, say some San Diego County officials, Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposed 1991-92 state budget may be just the kind of medicine they have needed to eventually obtain adequate funds for social programs, as well as relieve their crowded jails.

“Obviously, the overall picture in terms of revenue is grim,” said Supervisor Susan Golding, assessing the immediate damage of Wilson’s proposed $55.7-billion spending plan. “It’s bad news. And that’s no surprise.

“But the good news that came out of it could be significant: the ability to raise revenues locally . . . for justice and for education,” she said.

The bad news is that Wilson’s home county will not be spared the pain inherent in his proposed budget, a mere 1.4% larger than the current spending plan that cut deep into poverty programs last year under then-Gov. George Deukmejian.

As in other areas of the state, among the hardest hit will be the poor--particularly the 44,000 San Diego families receiving payments under the Aid to Families With Dependent Children program. They now receive a total of about $25 million a month in individual payments worth $694 per family.

Yet Wilson, vowing to break the cycle of lifelong dependency on welfare, wants to reduce that amount and has proposed a 9% cut in AFDC payments. That move would pare San Diego’s total to $22.7 million, leaving each family with $633 to spend, state figures show.

Sen. Lucy Killea (D-San Diego), who served on the San Diego City Council when Wilson was mayor, said she understands the desire to encourage people off of the welfare rolls, but added that she is bothered by Wilson’s approach.

“I guess what concerns me about it is the tone that all of these people are kind of, well, trying to get away with something,” Killea said. “The big problem is we have many illiterates, people who have no education to prepare them for a job, so some of them can’t even hold minimum-wage jobs.”

Students at San Diego’s public schools and colleges would also experience discomfort under the Wilson budget, which would take public-school-per-pupil spending down to 1988 levels. San Diego city schools may see a $35-million shortfall.

At San Diego State University, for example, administrators are contemplating cuts of 5% to 8%, while their proposed capital budget has been scaled back to $2.5 million--10% of what they were allotted last year.

San Diego’s alcohol drinkers and car owners would also feel pain under the proposed budget. The new governor wants to slap a penny-a-drink tax on spirits, while he has asked for a 30% increase in vehicle license fees.

No figures were available Thursday on how the license fees would affect San Diego County alone, but Wilson made it clear that he had many Porsche and Mercedes-Benz owners in mind when he thought up the scheme.

“It will hit most heavily those who buy the most expensive vehicles,” he said at a morning news conference.

Yet, for all the gloom, San Diego officials saw a silver lining in the plan proposed by the former mayor. For one, he wants San Diego and other counties to take over full responsibility for their public and mental health programs--with no strings tied to Sacramento.

Wilson proposes using the new alcohol and motor license taxes to pay for the local programs, and not money out of the state general fund. Although Killea said she is “suspicious” of the move, county budget director Manuel Lopez praised it as a step toward financial independence.

“One of the primary problems in mental and public health programs was the uncertainty of funding from year to year,” Lopez said. “Now, not only will we get the administrative responsibilities, but we will also get a growing local revenue to administer these programs more efficiently.”

Despite the pain it would inflict on the poor, Lopez said, the AFDC cuts would save county government--itself financially hard pressed--about $3.2 million a year in matching payments.

County officials also were cheered by Wilson’s proposal to give them more money to raise local taxes. Wilson said he will submit legislation giving counties such as San Diego the authority to ask voters for an extra half-cent sales tax for crime prevention and drug rehabilitation programs. If approved, the increase would net about $90 million countywide.

In addition, he promised to seek a constitutional amendment giving local governments the ability to raise property taxes for new schools and jails with a simple majority vote of its residents, instead of the two-thirds “super-majority” required by Proposition 13.

Supervisor Golding said the change in Proposition 13 could be the key to finally building new jails, which are crucial to relieving the crowding. Voters have tried that through an increased sales tax, but the levy has been tied up in a court challenge, and the money is stockpiling.

Golding said the constitutional amendment could allow San Diego to use its property tax, instead, to construct the much-needed facilities.

“I think it’s significant that the governor supports that change, and I think it is likely to happen if he supports it,” she said.

Times staff writer David Smollar in San Diego contributed to this story.