Officials Say State Budget Plan Helps, Hurts Area : Finances: County leaders worry about cuts in programs for the poor and the homeless but are grateful for greater flexibility in spending rules.

Reacting to Gov. Pete Wilson’s budget message, Ventura County officials said Thursday that the proposed $5.6 billion in state cuts would be painful to absorb, especially in programs for poor families and the homeless.

But they welcomed the new freedom the governor has asked the Legislature to give local officials in deciding how to spend state money.

“There are some things in this budget that will hurt,” said Maggie Erickson, chairwoman of the County Board of Supervisors. “But it gives us something we have been looking for a long time--more flexibility. Now there is hope we can find our way out of this fiscal mess.”

Officials said that for years state restrictions have prevented counties from dealing creatively with budget cuts that have left many counties unable to provide some basic services to their residents.

Wilson’s proposed $55.7-billion budget for the 1991-92 fiscal year, which reflects cuts required by soaring program costs and tax revenues, gives the counties greater control by turning over to them responsibility for local mental and public health programs. It also provides about $900 million annually in new tax revenues to pay for them. Counties would also get a growing share of vehicle license fees, beginning with $781 million next year, and $190 million a year from the proposed hike in liquor, beer and wine taxes. The new revenues would have no strings attached.

Cities would also get some help from Wilson’s budget, receiving a percentage of the proposed tax raised from the sale of candy. The money could be used to offset the controversial fees for jail bookings and property-tax collection the county has imposed on cities to make up for this year’s $5-million shortfall in state funds.

In addition, local officials could ask voters to raise the sales tax by a half-cent to offset the cost of anti-drug law enforcement under Wilson’s proposal.

“We were expecting the worst, but this offers a few rays of hope,” said Bert Bigler, county budget manager. “It has opened some new doors and is a positive step forward.

“But in bottom-line terms,” he added, “we still are going to be short of money, and we still are going to have reductions from where we are right now.”

Wilson’s proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 cuts deepest into funding for public schools and community colleges, which would be reduced by $2 billion, and into revenue for families on welfare, which face an 8% reduction statewide.

The governor’s plan calls for most state programs to be cut by 4%. Some programs, including those aimed at the homeless, would be eliminated.

Bigler said officials have few details of the plan and cannot say yet how many county services will be cut or how great the reductions will be. A better analysis should be available by next week, he said.

Local educators said they could not comment on how the budget will affect the county’s schools.

Wilson has proposed cuts in education that would reduce state support for schools by $500 million through June and $1.4 billion more next fiscal year, when schools would get $26.6 billion.

“It sounds like education will be faced with some severe cuts,” said Ken Prosser, the finance specialist for the county superintendent of schools. “But we don’t know the exact effect it will have on our budget. It’s just too early to say.”

Although the proposed budget won some praise, a controversy over one of the governor’s initiatives looms in Thousand Oaks.

Wilson has proposed redistributing any new sales tax that goes to cities based on their populations, rather than on where the sales occurred. Thousand Oaks, which along with Ventura is the county’s top retail center, has blasted earlier proposals to distribute sales tax by population.

“Sales tax is one of our major revenues,” Councilman Alex Fiore said. “We have to pay for street repairs and crime associated with retail facilities. I can’t help but resent that some of our sales tax would go to communities . . . that don’t have to pay for those effects.”

Fiore said of Wilson, “I can’t believe a good fiscal conservative would make that kind of proposal.”

But Supervisor John Flynn said reallocating the sales tax would give a shot in the arm to some cities where sales are relatively low. Those include Moorpark, Port Hueneme, Fillmore and Santa Paula.

“Some people may not like that,” Flynn said, “but I think that overall Pete Wilson has offered a very sensitive budget. Instead of the rigid policies being laid down by the state, this loosens things up.”

Deficit Busters: Gov. Wilson proposes service cuts, tax increases. A1