County Will Consider Keeping Tax From State : Funds: Antonovich proposes a gesture compared to the Boston Tea Party in which a portion of locally collected revenues would be withheld to ease budget crisis.

Proposing a gesture that one official said would be a modern-day Boston Tea Party, Supervisor Mike Antonovich said Tuesday that Los Angeles County could alleviate its budget crisis by refusing to give the state its full share of locally collected property taxes.

If adopted, the action would attempt to circumvent Proposition 13 and other elements of the state Constitution.

The proposal came as the board debated how to cope with a projected $1.4-billion shortfall.

County officials blame the crisis on Gov. Pete Wilson’s plan to shift $2.6 billion in property tax revenue from local government to schools. Los Angeles County would lose $858 million, about 47% of its property tax revenue.

Antonovich said he proposed the drastic action--which would almost certainly face a legal challenge--because cuts in the Sheriff’s Department and district attorney’s office threaten to endanger public safety.

“It’s an effort to stop tax-jacking,” Antonovich said. “If the state is successful in confiscating the county’s property tax, law enforcement won’t be able to perform its responsibility to protect citizens.”

The motion was placed on the Board of Supervisors’ agenda for discussion next week.

The proposal is modeled on one under consideration in Contra Costa County. Under the measure, officials could declare a county emergency to stop the property tax transfer. The amount of property tax distributed to the state would revert to the level in the 1992-93 budget.

County Counsel De Witt Clinton declined to comment on the proposal, saying that he will brief the supervisors in private.

Los Angeles County officials collect $5 billion in property taxes each year. Counties have been required to transfer all property tax revenue to the state since California voters passed Proposition 13 in 1978. The state, in turn, redistributes the funds to cities, counties, school districts and other local government bodies.

Privately, some county officials were skeptical that any legal argument could be found to withhold funds from the state.

But many said the gesture could serve as an important symbol of the county’s unwillingness to bear the brunt of the fiscal crisis.

“It’s our own Boston Tea Party,” Supervisor Gloria Molina said. Board Chairman Ed Edelman said the action would send a message to Wilson about the severity of the county’s budget problems.

In Contra Costa County, officials tentatively approved a similar measure last month, placing it on the June ballot as Measure A.

“The governor’s budget would mean that over half of our fire services wouldn’t be funded,” Contra Costa County Supervisor Sunne McPeak said. “It would mean closing detention facilities.”

McPeak said officials and residents plan to stage a “tea party” in May, boarding a boat in Richmond and traveling upstream to Antioch, where they plan to dump tea into the Sacramento River.

“This is an uprising of our taxpayers and citizens saying, ‘Don’t take our property tax dollars to balance your state budget,’ ” McPeak said.

Los Angeles County officials are also supporting a lawsuit by the city of Alhambra that seeks court action to declare the shift of property tax revenue unconstitutional.