Budget With 6% in Cuts Is Adopted in Ventura : Finances: A dip in revenue eliminates many small programs. But 10 youth and senior citizen programs are preserved.

Facing the worst money crunch in more than a decade, the Ventura City Council early Tuesday adopted a $214-million 1992-94 budget, with 6% cuts across-the-board and the potential of laying off 10 city workers.

For the second year in a row, city leaders were forced to shave costs in nearly every department because of a dip in sales taxes and other sources of revenue. This year, officials project a $3.4-million shortfall in sales tax, one of the city’s largest sources of income.

The new austerity program eliminated many smaller programs, including the annual subsidy for the Ventura Music Festival, summer aquatics classes and replenishment of sand swept out to sea at Surfer’s Point. The city also shaved $9,000 of its support for the Ventura Arts Council; however, the funding may be restored later, officials said.

Officials said they would continue a hiring freeze that affects eight positions and might have to lay off 10 employees in the effort to trim $6 million from the city’s $101.6-million operating budget over the next two years.

“This is the most difficult year since Proposition 13 was passed,” said Terry Adelman, the city’s finance director. “It’s largely because the city has gone through such a dramatic financial reduction.”

But despite widespread cuts in most city services, council members decided to save 10 youth and senior citizen programs that had been designated by city staff to be trimmed or eliminated.

Under the plan, Ventura will spend $60,000 to fully fund its minibus program, which provides transportation throughout the city for the elderly and the disabled.

The council also decided to keep open the senior centers on Santa Clara Street and Ventura Avenue during the weekends, at a cost of $7,000, and continue spending $3,000 a year to fund a popular elementary school program called “Celebration of the Whale.”

In addition, the city will keep open its shooting range at Grant Park until a contractor can be found to run the facility. The council also decided to continue its support of the Boys and Girls Club gang intervention program, at a cost of $7,070 annually.

“We felt very strongly that there was room within our organization to save the programs for the elderly and the youth,” said Mayor Gregory L. Carson, who along with Councilman Gary Tuttle formulated the proposal to keep the services. “We wanted to institute those programs.”

“It’s a policy call,” Tuttle added. “When we are short on money, we want to keep the services that help people and find the money within the departments through cutting costs.”

Complicating Ventura’s financial problems, the county and state recently reduced the city’s annual revenue by nearly $1 million by taking away cigarette tax revenues, eliminating revenues from drunken-driving fines and charging for tax administration and jail booking.

Last year, the council trimmed $1.34 million from the city’s two-year, $101.2-million operating budget for 1990 to 1992.

Adelman said the city can still expect hard times ahead.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” he said. “We have great challenges ahead because of the state budget.”

Lauraine Brekkee, assistant city manager, added: “We are living in fear of what the next move in the state Legislature will be. . . . But for the most part, 95% of the city’s activities will continue.”

Maxine Culp, an advocate for the elderly, said she was pleased that the city decided to fund the programs for senior citizens.

“The senior centers are the only places that some of the elderly residents have to go,” Culp said. “That’s so important to their psychological well-being.”