COUNTYWIDE : Vasquez Calls Local Economic Summit

Facing budget cuts that will affect county services and local health care for the poor, Gaddi H. Vasquez, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, on Friday invited state legislators to sit down with county leaders in a local economic summit talk.

The unprecedented meeting allowed the supervisors, who are dealing with reduced tax revenue despite demands for more county services, to explore what the county’s state Assembly and Senate delegations might be able to do about local fiscal woes.

“As chairman, I wanted to try and increase communication between the board members and our county delegation,” Vasquez said.

Lawmakers were told that more services are needed for AIDS patients, welfare, mental health and other social services. But the county suffers from an unfair taxing system where it receives the lowest share, about 16% of property taxes, among all counties, said Ronald Rubino, the county’s management and budget director.

The state average in property tax revenue to all counties, Rubino said, is 33%. “If the county received the average of 33%, it would result in a $250 million increase,” he added.

In addition, Vasquez said the funding tug-of-war between the county and UCI Medical Center, which serves as a county hospital and provides the bulk of health care for the poor, was recently settled, at least for this year.

“The county went the extra step with UC Irvine’s Medical Center,” Vasquez said, “wherever we are to fund indigent services there for one more year. And we made it very clear that it was a one-time fiscal deal.”

Supervisors allocated an extra $3 million recently to avert a threatened closure of the near-bankrupt medical center.

At the meeting, Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder unveiled a plan to attack health care access, which she described as “the county’s sleeping giant.” Wieder suggested “privatizing,” health care by referring poor patients to private physicians, possibly as a pilot program.

“Of course, we’ll have to have help in finding funding sources,” Wieder said.

But lawmakers, including Assemblyman Ross Johnson, (R-La Habra), were quick to point out that the local problems are but a small example of the state’s economic situation, especially in view of an anticipated revenue shortfall of $10 billion for the next 16 months.

“That is a result of state government being on auto pilot and out of control,” Johnson said, adding that expenditures at the state level are growing at 11% to 12% rate a year, much higher than the revenue rate.

Compounding the problem, Johnson said, was the fact that legislators are facing effects from the five-year drought, helping farmers deal with a “devastating freeze” that damaged crops, passage of Proposition 140, and facing a reapportionment year. Prop. 140 limited the state legislators to no more than eight years in office.

“I heard an ancient Chinese proverb, that ‘We live in interesting times.’ Well, we do live in interesting times,” Johnson said.

Also in attendance were state assembly members Tom Mays (R-Huntington Beach), John R. Lewis (R-Orange), Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) and Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove). State senators included Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), Frank Hill (R-Whittier) and Edward R. Royce, (R-Anaheim).