Music Center Cites the Economy; Funds Cut 15% : Culture: Its four resident performing arts companies will operate on less money than they received last year.

The Los Angeles Music Center will provide 15% less funding than anticipated to its resident performing arts companies next year because the recession has caused the center to scale back its fund-raising goals, officials said Thursday.

The center’s fund-raising organization has reduced its 1992-93 target from $18.3 million to $15.5 million--roughly the same level as two years ago.

The reduced funding ranges from 4% to 12% less than the companies received last year.

“Everybody will tighten their belts until the buckle is at your spine,” said Los Angeles Opera Deputy General Director Patricia Mitchell.

But, she said, there will be no cuts in programs offered to the public. The opera will try to offset the losses by increased fund raising of its own, combined with administrative cuts.

Ernest Fleischmann, Philharmonic executive director, called the reductions a “very severe blow to our artistic and community services” but said his organization also will find ways to economize.

The Center’s Education Division, which provides programs for schools and community outreach, and Center Theatre Group are subject to similar cuts, officials said.

James A. Thomas, vice chairman and chief financial officer of the Music Center, said the center has taken out a $1-million loan from the center’s endowment fund to supplement the funds that the center hopes to raise.

The reductions, Thomas said, are unrelated to the center’s failure to meet its 1990-91 fund-raising goal of $17.6 million.

The center erroneously announced in early July that the goal had been met but later found that it was $1.3 million short. It marked the first time in 24 years that the fund-raising group had not reached its goal.

The Music Center’s four resident companies are the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Mark Taper Forum/Center Theatre Group, the Los Angeles Music Center Opera and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

The Joffrey Ballet, which last year received $1.2 million in support from the Music Center Unified Fund and had been the Music Center’s resident dance company since 1983, lost its residency last spring because it could not prove its financial stability.

In 1992-93, the Unified Fund hopes to provide:

* $4.6 million to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which last year received $5.2 million and was projected to receive $5.4 million next year.

* $3.7 million to the Mark Taper Forum/Center Theatre Group, which last year received $4.2 million and was projected to receive $4.5 million.

* $3.1 million to the Los Angeles Music Center Opera, which last year received $3.3 million and was projected to receive $3.7 million.

* $381,000 to the Master Chorale, which last year received $400,000 and was projected to receive $450,000.

* $654,000 to the Music Center Education Division, which last year received $700,000 and would have received $770,000.

$75,000 to the Dance Program, currently a task force designed to decide the future of dance at the Music Center after the loss of the Joffrey.

Thomas said the Music Center’s own operating budget will be cut by 20%, from $4.36 million to $3.55 million. Those cuts, he said, will affect fund raising, public affairs and administration.

It was not immediately known if cuts would affect the performance schedules or programs of the resident companies. A spokeswoman for the L.A. Philharmonic said the orchestra already has implemented cost-cutting measures in anticipation of the center’s announcement. A spokeswoman for the Center Theatre Group said it could be a few weeks before decisions are final on how cuts will be applied.

The Music Center Unified Fund, which raises money from the private sector and provides operating support to Music Center resident companies, receives money from 49 fund-raising arms.

The Unified Fund has continued to blame “inaccurate estimates” for the erroneous announcement that it had met its fund-raising goal and has said it will launch a new financial control plan to prevent such errors in the future. The Unified Fund arranged for a loan of $3 million from the Music Center Foundation, the Center’s endowment fund, to cover the shortfall as well as other expenses. It will be repaid over six years.

In an interview Wednesday, Thomas said that the mistakes leading to the erroneous announcement occurred within the center administration, not within the fund-raising groups. “It got tangled up at the general level,” he said. “It’s like selling Christmas trees--all of the income comes in at the end of the year. . . . It’s a big, complicated process, and it got goofed up.”