2 Supervisors Urge County Hiring Freeze : Budgets: The measure could save up to $7.7 million over six months and provide a buffer against expected cuts in state funding.

Citing sharp statewide drops in tax revenue caused by the recession, two Ventura County supervisors proposed Thursday an immediate freeze on hiring new county workers.

The emergency measure could save up to $7.7 million over the next six months and provide a buffer against sharp cuts in state funding expected for the fiscal year beginning July 1, analysts said.

Savings probably would be less, however, because some health and safety jobs and hard-to-recruit positions--which are among 439 existing vacancies--could still be filled, Budget Manager Bert Bigler said.

“This recognizes the economic times we’re in,” said Supervisor John K. Flynn, who joined a second Budget Committee member, Supervisor Vicky Howard, in making the recommendation.

“The state has a budget problem,” Flynn said, “and if we don’t plan for it, we’ll be in trouble too.”

A nonpartisan state commission recently projected an 8% to 13% state budget deficit over the next 18 months. Since counties depend on state funds for most county programs, state shortfalls also mean less revenue at the local level, officials said.

A majority of the five supervisors, who are scheduled to consider the proposed freeze on Tuesday, said they see little choice but to implement the measure.

At the same meeting, supervisors will consider a midyear budget report showing that--despite a projected 7% drop in local sales tax and a decline in construction-related fees--the county will not have to lay off any employees at least until July because of severe cuts last summer.

The report, by Chief Administrative Officer Richard Wittenberg, projects a year-end surplus of about $6 million in a $436-million general fund, which supports most essential county services.

However, the county’s budget for next fiscal year probably will include numerous layoffs and could call for the elimination of some services, Wittenberg said.

In his report, Wittenberg asks the Board of Supervisors to quickly devise ways to cut the county budget, not only in the short term but for next year.

“Have we done enough?” Wittenberg asks. His answer is that the state’s financial problems, and increasing demand for welfare assistance, can only mean “continuing challenges for the remainder of this year, and the very real prospect of a bleak 1992-93.”

In this year’s budget, the supervisors have already eliminated 54 jobs, frozen all pay raises and imposed a 5% cut on nearly all 30 general-fund departments--those over which they have greatest control. Additional 3% cuts were implemented in January in the middle of the fiscal year to help balance this year’s budget.

Flynn and Howard, the Budget Committee members, said they are certain that more cuts will be necessary.

“We need to take every step that we can to save money, and (a freeze) is the path that is least painful,” Howard said.

Howard said more drastic measures may be necessary in January, after Gov. Pete Wilson reveals his proposed budget for the next fiscal year.

“We were doing the same thing last year,” she said. “We were talking about a $3-billion state deficit, then $5 billion, and then the numbers grew astronomically. It ended up at, what, $14 billion?”

Howard, Flynn and Supervisor Maggie Erickson Kildee said the supervisors may yet be forced to lay off workers this fiscal year. And those cuts might come from a single service area, rather than being spread around and weakening all departments, they said.

“That’s where you get to the hard choices,” Howard said.

Erickson Kildee said she will propose Tuesday that the county devise a method to help determine which services the public values the most. Then, if deep cuts become necessary next summer, services considered least important would be cut most deeply.

“It’s so hard to get ahead of the curve,” Erickson Kildee said. “It seems we’re just reacting.”