Budget Plan for County Is Short by $2.2 Billion

Los Angeles County officials on Friday submitted a proposed $13.4-billion budget that falls a staggering $2.2 billion short of what is necessary to maintain the already strained level of service in the nation’s most populous county.

If approved by the Board of Supervisors, the budget’s Draconian cuts would affect virtually every corner of county government, taking heavy tolls on the Sheriff’s, Welfare, Health, Parks and Recreation and Beaches and Harbor departments. Layoffs could occur in several departments, including 300 or more at the Department of Public Social Services, which is facing a $692 million shortfall.

The proposed budget for the 1992-93 fiscal year eliminates the county’s innovative probation camp system, slashes scores of middle-management jobs, closes parks and museums, shortens library hours and threatens the coroner’s ability to supply gloves and masks for its employees.

Despite escalating crime, the Sheriff’s Department faces a $27-million gap between what the chief administrative officer is budgeting for the department and what Sheriff Sherman Block says is needed to keep services intact. The result, officials said, could be slower responses to emergencies and “extensive reductions in the department’s ability to investigate major crimes countywide.”

“Even the staggering $2.2-billion figure is low,” said Chief Administrative Officer Richard B. Dixon. “Department heads knew they couldn’t put in for . . . everything that in a perfect world they would need.”

The troubled Health Department reported that its proposed $4.1-billion appropriation “is an extremely tight budget, barely sustaining the current level of services” in the county that has the highest level of uninsured patients in the nation.

Proposed cuts at the Museum of Art, which would shut the doors for an additional day every week and reduce school tours by 25%, are also threatening the museum’s accreditation. And that, officials warned, could affect its state and federal funding.

Museum of Natural History officials fear that a $1.4-million budget shortfall would affect their ability to maintain dinosaur and automobile collections and could force them to close some collections. Funding for the Hollywood Bowl Museum was eliminated entirely.

The Parks Department would eliminate all staffing at its nine natural areas, such as Eaton Canyon, and close the exhibits there. It also would halt all maintenance on more than 300 miles of trails. “We’re very disappointed,” said James Okimoto, senior assistant director of the parks department. “We run an extensive park system on meager resources as it is.”

Even funding for the chief administrative officer, who prepared the proposed budget, would be cut by $2 million to $44.7 million, and the Board of Supervisors’ budget would remain flat at $27.1 million.

Although containing no new taxes, the county budget relies on some admittedly optimistic and tenuous assumptions about funding from state and federal sources and counts on the state’s voters to approve sweeping welfare reform at the polls.

It also assumes $300 million in state and federal funding for the overwhelmed county hospital system that Dixon called “indefinite and tenuous. . . . Failure to realize these anticipated revenues . . . will require curtailment of patient care services.”

In addition, the proposed budget--which will take effect July 1--does not fully fund the cost of paying $265 million in controversial new pension benefits.

“A vague, foggy question mark is the symbol of our circumstances this year,” Dixon said. “This year, more than most years, this (initial budget proposal) is a first stab, base line” from which the supervisors will add and subtract, he said.

Dixon said the budget could be significantly altered as a result of the state budget deliberations and changes in the economy.

Supervisor Ed Edelman said: “This year’s budget reflects the increasing local impact of our lingering national recession, which has produced rising caseloads at our health, mental health and social services agencies at a time of falling tax revenues available to support them.”

Overall, the county budget represents an increase of about 2.2% from the current budget--but that is well behind the 3% to 4% average wage hike for county employees in the coming fiscal year, the 4% overall inflation rate and massive new demands on the county’s public assistance and health programs as the recession continues.

Welfare payments have increased more than 40% during the past two years to more than $2.1 billion in the proposed budget.

The county’s major sources of revenue--property taxes and state and federal grants--have been slowed by the recession.

While slashing traditional programs, Dixon proposed funding a series of innovative “preventive programs” that he hopes will cut down on county expenditures in the future. Among them:

- Reallocating funds from foster care to a family preservation program aimed at keeping children with their natural families.

- Allocating additional funds to the Health Department’s perinatal program to avoid costly medical problems for newborns.

- Launching a Coroner’s Department program to educate “at-risk youth” about the dangers of gang involvement.

- Enhancing the county’s one-stop permit office to aid business and retain jobs.

- Diverting mentally ill people from the justice system by having mental health workers ride along with sheriff’s deputies when the need arises.

One of the few departments to get a significant boost in funding was the county assessor, responsible for bringing in real estate taxes. That budget would be increased by $5.5 million to $103.3 million.

The county budget, which will be presented to supervisors next week, will face unprecedented scrutiny this year.

After complaints that key county business was being conducted behind closed doors or with just superficial public debate, Dixon has arranged for a series of 12 hearings for public comment on, and explanation of, the budget.

Supervisors will also hold several days of public hearings as they deliberate on the spending plan.

And the budget document was expanded from a single volume, with terse and limited entries, to a series of four volumes replete with graphs, charts, schedules and suggested options.

Dixon said he gave supervisors enough pages to “kill a forest.”

Many questions are likely to arise over Dixon’s optimistic assumptions.

While claiming that the Health Department would be able to maintain service levels, and even improve perinatal services and nursing resources, Dixon also assumes that the department will realize $11.1 million in savings through reduced administrative staffing. An additional $62 million must be saved through “other belt-tightening measures” that he could not identify.

Irv Cohen, assistant health director for administration, said that although there are no program cuts, the “belt-tightening” could affect patient services. “I hope we can avoid doing that,” Cohen said. “But I can’t predict. It’s a big hit.”

In addition, Cohen said assumptions about state and federal funding are “extremely optimistic.”

Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Greg Thompson--whose department would receive $26 million less than it says it needs--maintained that the budget’s “income projections are all maxed. We can’t fall down at all on grants, asset forfeitures or fines.”

Thompson added: “It’s a status quo budget, which means if work remained at a status quo, we’d be OK. Obviously, it doesn’t.”

Misdemeanor prosecutions jumped 20% last year and felony cases, which had leveled off, jumped by 4,000, or about 5% of the annual total as a result of the recent riots, he said.

Eddy S. Tanaka, director of the Department of Public Social Services, said his department needs an additional 3,000 workers to be in a “full service” position. But under the proposed spending plan, he may have to lay off 300 to 500 workers--despite the continuing growth in the welfare rolls that stand at a record 1.5 million cases.

Tanaka said that if the welfare reform initiative proposed by Gov. Pete Wilson is not approved by voters, his department will be short an additional $13 million.

“As far as I’m concerned, this is a very severe shortfall,” Tanaka said. “All you need to do is look at some of my offices and see them jammed with people waiting.”

County Budget at a Glance

Here are the highlights of Los Angeles County’s proposed $13.4-billion budget for fiscal year 1992-93.

MENTAL HEALTH: The department would come up $13.7 million short, leading to “unmet needs” in programs, including child and adolescent services and homeless and jail efforts.

MUSEUM OF ART: Fifteen positions would be cut to save $608,000. Closing the museum an additional day each week would reduce the time available for free school tours by 25%, saving another $419,000.

MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: Twenty-four positions would be deleted to deal with a $1.4-million shortage; some collections could be closed permanently.

PARKS AND RECREATION: To close a $3.8-million gap, 64 positions would be cut. Reductions are also proposed for nature education programs, lifeguard and grounds maintenance services, weekend cleaning of restrooms, and maintenance of more than 300 miles of trails. In addition, exhibits at nine natural areas would be closed.

PROBATION: Nineteen juvenile camps face closure.

PUBLIC SOCIAL SERVICES: 300 to 500 workers may be laid off.

SHERIFF: Without an additional $27 million, officials predict delays in emergency responses and extensive reductions in investigations of vice, narcotics and gang-related crimes.