Budget Funds Park Deal, Is Mixed Bag for Defense Firms : Valley: Proposal would clear way for Santa Monica Mountains land purchase. Northrop’s B-2 program would be cut, but SDI boost may help local companies.

President Bush’s proposed 1993 budget released Wednesday would send money to the San Fernando Valley area for a parkland purchase and decontamination at Rockwell International’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory.

It would also drastically cut one major defense program that employs thousands of Valley-area residents and increase spending for another.

Overall, the budget is expected to worsen California’s state and county budget woes because Bush proposed whacking $1 billion out of health and education programs that Congress had approved to assist refugees and newly legalized immigrants.

The decision is a major blow to Gov. Pete Wilson, who personally lobbied the Administration for more funds while blaming the state’s economic troubles partly on the cost of immigrant services. If the drastic cuts are enacted by Congress, financially strapped Los Angeles County would be forced to pay for services benefiting its immigrant and refugee populations.

Bush’s $1.52-trillion spending blueprint includes $14 million to purchase federal parkland in the Santa Monica Mountains and an estimated $7 million to continue the cleanup at Rockwell’s facility west of Chatsworth. The $14 million for the Santa Monicas is 17% of the amount Bush proposed for parkland acquisition nationwide.

The budget document does not contain a set amount for the the Metro Rail system. The Administration is expected to announce a figure for construction of the third leg--which will include a segment from Hollywood and Vine to North Hollywood--in the next several weeks. Congress has authorized spending $695 million on the project over the next five years.

The budget contains mixed news for defense contractors in the Valley area. Bush called for ending production of Northrop Corp.’s costly B-2 bomber as part of his bid to reduce defense spending but also requested a boost in spending for the Strategic Defense Initiative to $5.4 billion--more than $1 billion over the level Congress approved last year.

Final assembly of the sleek, bat-winged B-2 is done at Northrop’s Palmdale plant and many components of the much-debated SDI, or “Star Wars,” program are manufactured in northern Los Angeles County.

The spending document includes $2.6 billion for four additional B-2 bombers to bring the total built to 20. The Administration had sought 75. The estimated savings would be $14.5 billion over five years. Northrop projects it will probably have to lay off 1,500 workers by year-end, most of them at the company’s engineering and design facility in Pico Rivera.

Further spending cuts announced Wednesday by the Defense Department are expected to cut 200,000 jobs in California alone, analysts said.

Defense cuts aside, said Sen. John Seymour (R-California), “we do very, very well. Many issues that are important to California are addressed, admittedly some of them not to the degree I would like.”

The Administration asked for $69 million to build the San Diego-Tijuana sewage treatment plant, the key facility in the battle to control Mexican sewage flows that have plagued San Diego beaches and coastal properties for nearly half a century.

Last year, Bush asked for $100 million for the border sewage treatment plant and $49 million was finally appropriated. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the plant will cost $406.6 million to build, more than twice the $194 million estimated in its early projections.

The largest funding request for California water projects was for more than $90 million for the Santa Ana River flood-control program. The project, which eventually will cost $1.5 billion, is intended to safeguard 3,000 lives and $11 billion in property in Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

By far the biggest concern posed by the Bush budget was the slashing of funds for immigrant and refugee assistance programs.

For newly legalized immigrants, Bush proposed spending $300 million--far less than the $1.1 billion sought by Wilson, Seymour and California Democrats.

Rep. Robert Matsui (D-Sacramento) called the $300 million “a mere pittance in relation to what is needed.”

Congress had approved $4 billion to finance immigrant services as part of a landmark immigration reform bill in 1986, but began pouring the money into other programs. The Administration had planned to provide no funding, as it did last year, before being lobbied by Wilson and Seymour.

Asked if the $300 million is sufficient for California, Seymour said “absolutely not.” He added: “But what this does is give us a beginning. Last year, it was zeroed out. Now our job will be to get that number close to or at $1.1 billion.”

Democrats were not so optimistic.

“California and the rest of the nation again get cheated,” Sen. Alan Cranston said. “The federal government owes the states $1.1 billion for outlays over several years, including $450 million for California.”

For the 184,000 refugees who entered California from Southeast Asia and other countries since 1985, the President’s budget slashed funding for services from $410 million to $227 million. The biggest effect will be felt in cash and medical assistance, which was cut from $234 million to $50 million.

The $14 million proposed to buy land for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, a unit of the national park system, was the most of any park nationwide. The total for park acquisition was $84.4 million, about $6 million more than the figure for 1992.

The budget does not list a specific amount for the Rockwell cleanup, but a spokesman for Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) said the project will probably receive the $7 million called for in a five-year Department of Energy national cleanup plan.

The money would be used to finish decontaminating the “hot lab”--a heavily shielded workshop where highly radioactive materials were handled by remote control--and for ground-water cleanup.