Welfare Cuts, Tuition Hikes Forecast in O.C.

Orange County’s soaring welfare community faces cutbacks of 10% per government check. County employees are threatened with frozen salaries, if not layoffs.

Students at UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton are looking at tuition hikes in the hundreds of dollars. And nature enthusiasts might see shorter hours at their favorite state parks.

All these prospects emerged Thursday from Gov. Pete Wilson’s bone-dry budget plan for the coming fiscal year.

It is a budget proposal that Orange County officials said escalates the recent trend of passing huge chunks of state funding responsibility on to local governments that are already strapped for cash.

And after thumbing through the Wilson plan Thursday, state and local lawmakers in Orange County said they are steeling themselves for yet another grueling round of bruising, politically divisive fiscal choices.

“This is going to be a long year,” sighed state Assemblyman Tom Mays (R-Huntington Beach).

County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez said: “We’ve been bracing for the worst, and we’ll have to deal with whatever comes our way--the options are minimal.”

The county budget staff had already predicted that Board of Supervisors would enter the upcoming budget season having to make up a potential shortfall of between $60 million and $90 million.

But the news got even worse Thursday in some fiscal areas, as county officials found out that Wilson is proposing a freeze on state funds for local trial courts, effectively cutting $143 million statewide.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Roger R. Stanton said he found this provision “very upsetting.”

The proposal appears sure to face opposition in the state Legislature, but if enacted, it would mean the county will have to find $14 million that it had expected to get from the state for running the courts, officials said.

Stanton promised to demand great fiscal restraint from his department heads in their budget requests and said: “We’re going to solve this quickly.”

Orange County last year ultimately had to eliminate a handful of county employees--the first layoffs since 1978--in order to close a $67.5-million budget shortfall.

Stanton would not rule out the prospect of large-scale layoffs this year.

Asked about that prospect, he said: “There will be a balanced budget, and the goal is to do it as professionally and as humanely as possible. Read into that what you will.”

After meeting with Stanton and county budget director Ronald S. Rubino to pore over the bleak numbers, County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider said: “This (budget) makes it a real tough job for us. We still don’t know how it’s going to shake out, but we know it will be difficult.”

There were some glimpses of encouraging news from Sacramento.

Wilson’s plan sets aside $2.6 million to acquire the Brea Olinda wilderness area for the Chino Hills State Park, as well as $1.4 million to improve sewer system connections and utilities to the cottages at Crystal Cove.

Cal State Fullerton would get $6.6 million and UC Irvine $10 million to upgrade facilities on those campuses. And UCI Medical Center Psychiatric Hospital would get $1.6 million to equip its new 92-bed facility.

In addition, Wilson’s budget includes $87 million in 1992 bond proceeds to help pay for local flood control projects, which could help the Santa Ana River project.

Orange County lobbyist Mark Watts said the governor’s wish to raise the money may be a sign he is ready to follow through on the state’s promise to begin paying for portions of the Santa Ana project, starting with $30 million to reimburse local costs for the massive public works project.

Even so, the plan portends tougher times for welfare recipients in Orange County. The group’s ranks have soared in recent years, with the number of local people receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children soaring from about 70,000 in October, 1990, to more than 87,000 three months ago.

Benefits to these recipients will be cut 10% under Wilson’s plan.

“There’s no question that given the escalating costs of social and health care programs . . . any reduction in benefits will have a substantial impact,” said Bob Griffith, chief deputy director of the county’s Social Service Agency.

Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove) said he is concerned about the cuts. “Welfare certainly should be on the table . . . but there are so many people--so many children--who require government assistance right now.”

Said Russ Barrios, budget analyst for Supervisor Don R. Roth: “We’ve got to stretch our resources, and the means to do it keep getting thinner and thinner. . . . I don’t think anyone faults the governor for what he wants to do, but we constantly get bombarded by shortsightedness.”

Nowhere will the battle over the budget be fiercer than in Sacramento.

Last year, Wilson and lawmakers squared off over how to close a $14.3-billion budget shortfall. The gap was closed by freezing cost-of-living increases in social programs and with more than $7 billion in new taxes.

Assemblyman Mays and other Orange County lawmakers cheered the cuts. But most of them fought hard against the tax increases in a bitter confrontation that, at one point, held up the budget in the Assembly and incurred the governor’s wrath.

Times staff writer Jim Newton contributed to this report.

O. C.’s Budget Winners and Losers

Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposed budget would save taxpayers any new taxes and maintain schools, but his welfare cuts could hurt thousands of Orange County residents, many added to unemployment rolls during the recession.

Budget Winners

Taxpayers face no new levies.

School funds would not be cut. Budget Losers

More than 87,000 county welfare recipients.

UCI and Cal State Fullerton students would pay higher tuitions.

Park users, with shorter hours possible at Bolsa Chica State Beach, Crystal Cove State Park and other facilities.

Spotlight on Welfare in Orange County

More than 87,000 county residents were receiving Aid to Families With Dependent Children in October, 1991, a 25% increase in one year.

Hardest-hit have been single-parent families; 10,000 such families have joined welfare rolls in the past year, now numbering 59,275.

Welfare benefits for every recipient would drop. County recipients who typically receive about $663 a month would get $597.

Sources: Orange County Social Services Agency; California Parks Department.