REGIONAL REPORT : Recession Taking a Toll on Government Services : Economy: Decline in revenues from sales tax and agency fees leaves cities and counties short of funds. Library, park and police agencies face cuts.

Motorists in Costa Mesa could find themselves traveling down more dimly lit roads as city officials grapple with dark economic times and ponder turning off every other street light.

In Oxnard, patrons who attended the opening of a new library found it closed for business the next day. And in San Diego, park-goers or couples seeking marriage licenses may instead find “Closed for the Day” signs posted sporadically this spring.

With the economy mired in a prolonged recession not expected to ease soon, cities and counties throughout Southern California have seen tax revenues shrink dramatically this year, forcing some painful belt-tightening that is increasingly inconveniencing the public.

“Almost nothing is too big, too small or too strange to be ignored” when it comes to budget trimming, said Costa Mesa City Manager Allan Roeder of the suggested shut-off of every other street light, which would help make up $70,000 of the city’s estimated $3.7-million budget shortfall.

Los Angeles has seen its monthly share of sales tax receipts from the State Board of Equalization drop from $29 million in February, 1991, to $26 million last month--a pattern duplicated in most cities throughout the state. Last month, San Diego received $9.5 million in sales tax revenue, compared with $10.8 million in February, 1991. And even Beverly Hills proved not to be recession-proof: Its sales tax revenue declined from $1.44 million to $1.26 million.

“Nobody thought it would be this bad for this long,” said San Diego City Manager Jack McGrory, whose $1.1-billion budget recently was trimmed by about $25 million, largely because of the sales tax plunge.

Cutbacks in an array of municipal programs will eliminate some services and create strains in others areas, from recreation and culture to street-sweeping and license-processing--a list that could grow longer if the economic downturn persists.

“It may be a case of waiting longer to get less from City Hall,” said San Diego City Councilwoman Valerie Stallings.

A number of recession-induced factors underlie local governments’ budget woes--among them, cutbacks in state funding and limited growth in property taxes from sharp reductions in construction and home-buying.

Arguably the most damaging factor, though, has been the precipitous drop in sales tax revenue, which accounts for up to 40% of some cities’ general operating budgets. Consumers’ sharply curtailed spending, combined with the severe decline in construction, has caused sales tax receipts throughout Southern California to nose-dive, creating budget gaps reaching into tens of millions of dollars in some large cities.

In San Diego, sales tax revenues have plummeted to what McGrory describes as “Depression-era levels,” while in Los Angeles, glum budget officials have watched sales tax receipts decline for two consecutive years for the first time since World War II.

Costa Mesa, meanwhile, has limped through 14 consecutive months in which retail sales have declined from the year before--an unprecedented trend especially burdensome to a city where annual double-digit increases in sales tax revenues were common in the 1980s.

When cities prepared their current budgets last summer, most economists predicted a moderate economic recovery for early 1992. Not only has that not occurred, but the steep decline in dollars from sales taxes, permits and other fees that began during 1991 has worsened this year, widening the gap between projected and actual revenue.

Beyond routine hiring freezes and service cutbacks, cities and counties also are exploring some unorthodox ways of reducing expenses or raising new revenue--like turning off alternate street lights on some major streets in Costa Mesa.

The Costa Mesa City Council has deferred action on the recommendation pending review of whether it could subject the city to greater legal liability. Motorists who have accidents or pedestrians who become victims of street crimes conceivably could argue in court that the dimmer lighting contributed to their mishaps.

“We want to make sure that we don’t end up cutting electricity but increasing liability,” Roeder said.

In San Diego County, officials’ efforts to close a $30-million gap in their $1.9-billion budget could cause county residents to find parks, government offices and other facilities closed or unstaffed on selected days--probably Fridays--over the next three months.

For San Diegans applying for marriage licenses, registering property transfers or needing access to myriad other county offices, the periodic closures could be an annoyance that personalizes the bleak but dry budget statistics.

“It could inconvenience some people, but believe me, a $30-million budget deficit is a bigger inconvenience,” said David Janssen, San Diego County’s assistant chief administrative officer.

Around-the-clock public safety and health institutions, such as jails and county-operated hospitals, would be exempt from the closure plan, which is designed to allow more county employees to take time off voluntarily without pay. To date, about 37% of the county’s 17,000-employee work force has signed up for the program, saving San Diego $1.7 million in unpaid salaries and Social Security payments--a figure expected to double by the end of the fiscal year.

Oxnard officials have struggled to find $1.5 million in new cuts on top of the $4.4-million reduction approved in their $120-million two-year budget.

Not surprisingly, some proposed cuts proved unpopular with Oxnard residents, forcing city officials to retreat from their plans. That was the case with a recommendation to cancel the city’s Fourth of July festival, a plan withdrawn amid public opposition. Similarly, volunteers have been used to keep park restrooms open on weekends after their temporary closure caused an uproar.

Oxnard’s traditional seven-days-a-week library service also fell victim to its budget difficulties. As a result, the coastal city’s new 72,000-square-foot public library recently opened on a Saturday and then closed the next day--producing jokes inside and outside City Hall.

In Palm Springs, where February sales tax revenue dropped from $586,000 in 1991 to $464,000 this year, city officials hope to minimize public service cuts by, in effect, going into the mechanics business. Under a proposal being reviewed, city mechanics who maintain Palm Springs’ vehicle fleet would make their services available, for a fee, to adjoining cities.

As tax revenues constrict, cities increasingly confront what Costa Mesa Councilman Joe Erickson terms “a sense of values”--the need to balance vital services such as police protection against worthy but less essential programs such as those in the arts or recreation.

Reflecting that trend, Costa Mesa’s grants to cultural arts groups will be cut in half beginning in July, a reduction that could endanger music workshops and plays for students and classical music performances for senior citizens.

Similarly, in Huntington Beach, charitable organizations dealing with the homeless, seniors and other needy groups fear that the council could target them for cuts as it struggles with a looming $5-million deficit.

And visitors to San Diego parks, like those in other cities, can expect to see longer, less well-kept grass and more graffiti because of maintenance reductions, said Parks and Recreation Director George Loveland.

Even public safety and other top-priority services no longer can count on being insulated from the wave of budget cuts. In Orange County, a $23-million budget shortfall has led to the elimination of 700 jobs and a 16-month freeze on 700 other vacant positions, many of them in the Sheriff’s Department and the county’s Health Care Agency. Those vacancies, officials warn, will have an effect on sheriff’s patrols, jails and various health programs.

Capital improvement projects also have been among the major victims in the recent rounds of budget-cutting--raising concerns over whether the short-term cuts could produce more nettlesome long-range problems. Many cities have deferred projects such as road and building repairs, as well as purchases of fire and police vehicles and other equipment.

“Maintenance is always an easy thing to cut, but you pay in the long run,” said San Diego General Services Director Terry Flynn.

Even so, some city officials see potential benefits growing out of a process that has been economically and politically painful. By forcing city leaders to reassess current practices, re-evaluate priorities and search for greater efficiencies, they argue, the reduced staffing and other changes could create better, more streamlined local governments.

“We’re always talking about trying to do things more effectively and efficiently,” Loveland said. “When a crunch like this hits, it pours a little extra coal on the fire to finally get something done.”