County Can Levy New Tax, Analyst Says : Finances: Supervisors doubt they will approve the half-cent sales charge to make up for at least $12.2 million in state funding cuts.

Ventura County supervisors will be able to impose a new half-cent sales tax to make up for expected revenue losses from the state this year, an analyst told the board Tuesday.

But supervisors said they see no chance that the board would approve the new tax to make up for state cuts of at least $12.2 million.

“It would not fly,” board Chairman John K. Flynn said. “The people would not support this increase. They could overwhelm you in the board room.”

In a second budget-related action, the Board of Supervisors eliminated 23 jobs in a Health Care Agency reorganization that they praised as a model for tight times because most employees to be fired are managers, not front-line workers.

Although the Legislature and Gov. Pete Wilson have not yet agreed on a final budget, county legislative analyst Penny Bohannon told supervisors that deals already struck will cut $6.9 million from the county’s $436-million general fund.

Another $670,000 will be cut from the county’s $10-million library budget, $2.1 million from a $49-million Fire Department budget and $2.5 million from a special fund that assists county special districts that provide a variety of services, including recreation, road maintenance and flood control.

The county’s total budget is $679 million this year.

To make up for the cuts, Bohannon said, state officials have agreed to allow counties to impose without voter approval a new half-cent sales tax for each of the next two fiscal years and another quarter-cent levy the third year.

In Ventura County, each half cent of sales tax is equal to $25 million annually. The sales tax rate is now 7 1/4 cents on each $1 of sales.

Supervisors have been reluctant to propose new taxes in a recession, and Supervisor Maggie Kildee said she doesn’t think that the board will seriously consider them this time.

In any case, she said she is not yet certain about how much the state will really take from counties.

“First of all, we have to figure out what they’re really going to do,” Kildee said.

County Budget Manager Bert Bigler cautioned that the projected $12.2-million loss only reflects the cuts agreed to so far.

“There can still be more, definitely,” Bigler said. “This isn’t the only thing we expect. . . . It’s a moving target, and unfortunately we’re the target.”

Noting the cuts to come, county Health Care Director Phillipp K. Wessels gained board approval for a reorganization of his agency’s 95-person building maintenance and housekeeping staff that will save $900,000 a year.

The change eliminates 18 supervisorial and management jobs and five maintenance positions. Because of vacancies and early retirements, only 14 to 16 people will lose their jobs, Wessels said. No housekeepers will be fired, he said.

State officials are discussing 15% cuts in health-care funding to the counties, and Wessels said he expects no improvement for several years.

“We must take every possible opportunity to reduce our overhead costs . . . the costs of middle management,” he said. Services to patients will only be cut as a last resort, he said.

Wessels’ proposal was praised as sensitive to workers by Barry Hammitt, executive director of the Ventura County Public Employees Assn., whose union represents three employees whose jobs are being eliminated.

But Hammitt asked the board to review the reorganization in 90 days because the supervision of housekeepers and maintenance workers is being shifted to nurses and others trained in medicine, not maintenance.

The maintenance workers are at the bottom of a “pecking order” and no longer will have managers to mediate disagreements with the medical staff, he said.

Wessels acknowledged the potential problem but said employees must try harder to work as a team.

“There will be problems,” he said. “This is not a perfect world.”

Chief Administrative Officer Richard Wittenberg supported the reorganization, saying it is a necessary gamble that eliminates key middle managers. “No other hospital has ever done what we’re trying to do,” he said.

A majority of the Board of Supervisors praised Wessels’ proposal as a model for other county agencies.

“It’s moving into an area of participatory management, and I like that,” Flynn said.

Wessels is “trying to empower people on the front lines,” Supervisor Maria VanderKolk said.

All county departments have been required to submit plans to reduce budgets either 2.5% or 5%, so the supervisors can quickly approve a 1992-1993 budget once Wilson and the Legislature agree on a state spending plan.

Ventura County gets about 40% of its general fund budget from the state.

Bohannon said it could lose not only the $12.2 million already agreed upon but millions more, depending on how much money the state shifts from counties to school districts--a key remaining point of dispute in Sacramento.