County to Cut Jobs, Delay Projects to Close Transportation Budget Gap

Orange County transportation officials have agreed to cut 54 jobs and stall some projects to close the gap on a $42-million budget deficit.

The Orange County Transportation Authority board also picked brokerage firms to underwrite as much as $200 million in bonds that may be sold against future revenue from Measure M, the half-cent sales tax for highway and transit projects approved by voters in November, 1990.

Other staff recommendations approved by the board on Monday include use of several million dollars in reserves, deferring some minor projects such as buying new buses and cutting 54 staff positions, 50 of which will be vacant posts left unfilled under a hiring freeze.

The agency, which oversees transportation planning and transit service, was created in June through the merger of the Orange County Transportation Commission, the Orange County Transit District and the Consolidated Transportation Services Agency.

Officials said no bus service would be affected.

The board also approved small raises for about 100 staffers who earn less than $10 an hour. Most of those affected are telephone operators and clerks.

The budget adjustments come three months after state officials warned county officials of a precipitous drop in sales tax income due to the poor economy. In October, the OCTA board adopted an interim 1991-1992 budget of $452.1 million; the amended budget approved on Monday is $422.5 million, a reduction of 6.5%.

Three of the five operations run by OCTA are affected by sales tax receipts.

The most serious staff cuts involve training and human resource personnel, officials said.

The sale of bonds to finance traffic improvements, meanwhile, is being held up by a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Measure M because it was not approved by a two-thirds majority.

The suit is expected to be resolved in the next two months.

Without waiting for the end result, however, the OCTA board chose Lehman Brothers as the senior managing underwriter for the bond sales, with Kidder Peabody, Goldman Sachs, Smith Barney, Dean Witter, Smith and Mitchell and Charles A. Bell participating in the finance team.