County Expects Another Fiscal Crisis : Budget: Dixon sees a shortfall of $750 million to $1 billion, meaning more painful cuts in services.

Los Angeles County is likely to face a budget shortfall of $750 million to $1 billion in the coming fiscal year, Chief Administrative Officer Richard Dixon said Tuesday, raising the specter of another round of sharp program cuts in July.

Dixon blamed the looming fiscal crisis on anticipated cuts in state funding for county programs. He said California officials expect the next state budget to include deep cuts in property tax revenues allocated to local governments.

“The state budget gap has become even wider than what we anticipated,” Dixon told the Board of Supervisors. He later added in an interview: “We are facing a very difficult year next (fiscal) year. All of the easy cuts have been done already.”

Last September, the county faced a $588-million shortfall in its $13-billion budget. The board approved deep cuts in a variety of county services, including the closing of libraries and reductions in general relief welfare payments.

The board also initiated an early retirement program that will eliminate at least 1,200 county jobs this year. Some officials argue that work furloughs and a two-year pay freeze--something union leaders rejected last fall--will soon be inevitable.

“The budget keeps looking worse and worse,” said Irv Cohen, chief financial officer at the Department of Health Services. Cohen will take early retirement this month. “Next (fiscal) year, the picture looks extremely dismal.”

In response to the worsening budget news, Board of Supervisors Chairman Ed Edelman called for more county employees to sign up for the early retirement program.

“The continuing recession and state budget shortfalls threaten further cuts that may well result in layoffs,” Edelman said. “I therefore urge all interested employees to apply (for early retirement) immediately before the Jan. 15 deadline.”

Dixon said he will release a full report on the county budget this week. The state budget is scheduled to be released Friday. Supervisors are expected to discuss the county’s fiscal health at their Jan. 11 meeting.

Dixon gave no hint of where the cuts will come from.

Administrators at several county departments already have begun the process of drafting lean preliminary budgets for the 1993-94 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

At the Probation Department, for example, administrator Shirley Bolinger is expecting a $112-million shortfall.

At least 188 Probation Department employees have accepted early retirement, including 140 sworn probation officers, meaning an increase in caseloads for those remaining. Department administrators also are mulling over a proposal to close all 20 camps for juvenile offenders.

“The only real option we have is (to cut) camps,” Bolinger said. “Everything else is mandated by statute. The question is, how well do you perform that mandate?”

Bolinger said the Probation Department is considering placing more freed convicts on “automated” supervision, checking in with their probation officers by telephone or mail.

About 400 employees have signed up for the early retirement program at the Department of Social Services, said department spokeswoman Carol Matsui.

“All predictions are that it’s going to be worse next (fiscal) year,” Matsui said. Welfare officials estimate the department is already 50% understaffed. As of Oct. 31, there were a record 1,573,829 people on the welfare rolls in Los Angeles County.

“We’ve taken hits for the last several years,” Matsui said. “We’re hurting because the remaining staff is being asked to carry more and more cases.”

While many county agencies are assured of adequate funding for the remaining six months of this fiscal year, the Department of Health Services is still facing a $180-million shortfall. County health officials are waiting to see if state authorities will grant them the funds to keep county hospitals out of the red.

“We know we’re underfunded already,” Cohen said. “We know we should be able to handle up to 50% more patients, but we can’t.”

Dixon said county officials expect a sluggish California economy and skyrocketing welfare caseloads, along with increased demand for other county services, to contribute to the budget shortfall.

Dixon added that the state took about half of the county’s allocation of state-distributed property tax revenue last year. “It’s widely suspected they will take the other half” in the coming fiscal year, he said.