Voters Expected to Reject Sales Tax Increase : Budget: County officials react to a proposal by the governor. They say residents would rather see cuts in government services than higher levies.

While an optional half-cent sales tax increase that was proposed Thursday by Gov. Pete Wilson would raise about $25 million in Ventura County, local observers predict that it would be rejected by voters here.

“I don’t think taxpayers are going to take too kindly to most of the solutions proposed by the state,” said Jere Robings, executive director of the Ventura County Taxpayers Assn.

The optional half-cent sales tax increase is part of a sweeping plan by Wilson to resolve a projected $12.6-billion state budget deficit. The plan would include raising the statewide sales tax by 1 1/4 cents.

The sales tax in Ventura County is now 6%. The Wilson proposal would boost it to 7 1/4%.

On top of that, counties would be given the authority starting next year to raise sales taxes another half a cent--subject to voter approval--to finance schools and drug and crime-prevention programs. Money earmarked for those programs would then be freed up to address other county budget needs, officials said.

However, several county officials--pointing to the overwhelming defeat last year of a half-cent sales tax to pay for transportation programs--predicted that voters would rather see cuts in county services than tax increases.

Bert Bigler, a county budget administrator, also noted the outcry last month from business owners when the Ventura County Board of Supervisors adopted a business license fee that would raise $500,000 annually.

“We just went through a business license tax that was minuscule compared to a half-cent sales tax and we had lots of trouble with that,” Bigler said.

He added that it would also be risky for local politicians to support such an increase. “It sounds like a good solution, but it’s wrought with tough policy decision problems,” he said.

Chief Administrator Richard Wittenberg agreed. “It’s a very, very difficult situation for our locally elected officials,” he said.

Wittenberg ordered every county department to cut budgets by 6% this year to make up for a budget shortfall of about $13 million. Next year, county budget analysts predict an $11-million deficit without new revenues. However, county officials agree that a tax increase would probably be a last resort.

In November, county voters rejected by a 2-1 margin a ballot measure that would have raised the local sales tax a half-cent to pay for $500 million in transportation projects over the next 20 years. In Oxnard, voters also overwhelmingly rejected a 5% utility users fee to help resolve a $2.8-million deficit.

Supervisor John K. Flynn, who is a member of a county budget subcommittee, said he believes that voters would reject a half-cent sales tax increase although voters may support the programs that the taxes would fund. “They probably would not support any kind of tax increase,” he said.

Randall Feltman, the county’s mental health director, said the reaction by local business owners to a new business license tax indicates that residents are fed up with increased taxes. “It was a relatively minor amount for business tax and it sounded like a tax revolt,” he said.

Part of Wilson’s plan to reduce the state deficit next year would include shifting $2.3 billion in state costs for various health services to the counties. Ventura County’s slice of that amount would be about $20 million.

However, part of the 1 1/4-cent sales tax increase included in Wilson’s plan would be earmarked for the counties to make up for the decrease from the state.

Feltman said the shift may help cut county costs by giving the county sole responsibility for operating all local mental health programs and, thus, eliminate overlapping state bureaucracy.

“So in that sense it would be good,” Feltman said. “But we are still a long way from clarifying how the realignment would work.”

Three other proposals to balance the state’s budget--one by Senate Republican Leader Ken Maddy of Fresno, another by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) and one by a group of Democratic leaders in the Senate and Assembly--would also shift some funding responsibilities to counties and increase local taxes to make up for the shift.

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