New Santa Clarita Budget to Restrict Growth : Government: The $26-million blueprint is a 2% decrease. It signals the young city’s first fiscal pains.

Faltering revenue due to the recession will force the city of Santa Clarita to adopt a budget that provides for no major staff or program additions for the first time in its 4 1/2-year history.

A preliminary budget report presented to the City Council on Tuesday outlines a proposed general fund budget for fiscal 1992-93 of $26.1-million, a decrease of 2% from the previous year’s budget.

With little discussion, the City Council voted unanimously to receive the report and schedule several meetings beginning May 20 to discuss individual departments before adopting the final budget.

The “hold-the-line budget” offered by City Manager George A. Caravalho signals the first year in which the young city will have to forgo growth in its municipal government for lack of money.

“Other budgets have included exciting new programs, new staff, increased service levels, and new services,” Caravalho said in the budget summary. “This budget, by and large, does not.”

The city’s financial future has been dimmed by an anticipated $1.3-million revenue shortfall for the fiscal year that ends June 30, due primarily to declining construction permit fees and a reduction in sales tax revenues, according to the report. For the next fiscal year, the budget anticipates a further drop of 2% in fees paid to the city for building permits, according to the report.

The city’s biggest revenue source, sales taxes, is expected to increase by only 2.8%, compared to previous years when tax revenues increased by 6% to 10%, according to the budget report. However, the scheduled opening of the Valencia Town Center and a new Price Club store are expected to provide the city an additional $1 million in sales taxes, the report said.

Despite the general austerity of the proposals, the Parks and Recreation Department would receive a budget increase of 13%--the largest of any department. That would provide money to hire an additional clerk and a groundskeeper and set aside $10,000 for a gang prevention program and $5,000 for a scholarship program for disadvantaged families. The increase would be paid mostly from $300,000 in increased fees charged for new recreational programs and classes.

While the budget report also recommends an overall 4.7% increase in spending for police protection, most of the additional $400,000 for that service would go toward salary increases already negotiated for Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies. The Sheriff’s Department provides contract law enforcement service to the city, which does not have its own police.

However, the budget also outlines a reorganization of police dispositions to focus on anticipated crime in the new town center and newly annexed areas of the city. The reshuffling of sheriff’s deputies would eliminate such positions as a deputy to discuss safety issues with grammar school children, a deputy to enforce load regulations on big trucks and deputies to patrol for drunk drivers.

The budget, however, would call for two additional patrol cars and a traffic unit to be assigned to the new mall. It would also increase patrols in the Saugus area from five days to seven. The reorganization would add one deputy to the staff.

The city’s administrative services department would suffer an 11% reduction, the biggest cut under the proposed budget, forcing administrators to cut professional services, travel and training budgets, as well as equipment and supplies.

The budget also includes a list of slightly more than $1 million in requests for new positions and programs from various departments, which could not be funded. Also listed were $10.5 million in proposed capital improvement projects that could not be paid for.