More Cuts in County Budget Sought : Government: Report recommends $20 million more be slashed from departments. Reductions are necessary due to huge decrease in revenue from the state.

In an attempt to offset massive revenue losses from the state, Orange County officials have recommended additional budget cuts of more than $20 million, according to a report released Thursday.

The bulk of the cuts--about $17.5 million--are proposed to come from the county’s network of special districts responsible for services ranging from libraries and garbage collection to water and flood control services.

To make up for an anticipated loss of $6.6 million in funding for trial courts, plans call for further funding reductions of $4.2 million. The balance is expected to be drawn from the county’s reserve fund.

The cuts were approved in concept last month by the Board of Supervisors, but Thursday’s report represented the most detailed breakdown of reductions in departments throughout the county. The report will be presented to supervisors Tuesday.

In all, the county’s total revenue loss was listed at $31.4 million, according to the report. Much of the county’s lost revenue was in the form of property tax funds that were transferred to state education programs to help close the gap on California’s budget deficit.

Despite the significant revenue losses, county officials said local government remained in “favorable” financial shape because of actions taken by the Board of Supervisors last June to reduce county government costs by $42.1 million.

“Ultimately, this is what the state has done to us,” county Budget Director Ronald S. Rubino said Thursday. “We just have to re-engineer the way we do our work.”

The report released Thursday represents the county’s second round of budget reductions. Although some vacant positions are recommended for elimination, the cuts do not call for layoffs.

With few signs of a dramatic economic turnaround, county executives predicted that this would become an annual exercise.

“Although the state has adopted a budget, the financial crisis is not over,” warned County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider in the report. “Continuation of poor economic conditions will only serve to exacerbate the problem. . . . The economic outlook indicates we can expect this situation to continue through 1993-94.”

According to the county’s report, the biggest loser in the network of special districts is expected to be the Orange County Flood Control District. Recommendations are for a $6.7-million reduction, with much of it coming from deferring expenditures on the county’s $1.5-billion Santa Ana River Mainstem flood control project.

However, Rubino said the reduced expenditures, amounting to $2.7 million during the year, would not place the project at risk.

Perhaps some of the most noticeable cuts would come in the form of reduced services in the county’s system of 27 libraries.

Although library hours would not be affected, Rubino said the county proposal would slice $625,000 from funds for new books, while new building or renovations would be cut by $430,000.

“These are real losses,” Rubino said.