Tri-County Group to Study Sharing Services

Hoping to ease the blow of massive state funding cuts, Ventura and Santa Barbara county officials pledged Wednesday to “share the grief” by exploring ways to combine services and purchases to reduce expenditures.

Ventura County Supervisors Susan Lacey, Maria VanderKolk and Maggie Kildee met with the Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors for two hours to discuss budget-cutting strategies.

During the meeting in Santa Barbara, officials agreed to form a tri-county task force that will include two representatives each from Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties to study how their jurisdictions can work together to improve efficiency.

Supervisors Lacey and Vicky Howard will represent Ventura County on the committee.

“It’s important that we share ideas because everybody’s dealing with the same problems,” VanderKolk said.

Santa Barbara Supervisor Naomi Schwartz agreed, saying, “A tri-county approach to doing things strengthens all of our hands.”

Among other things, the task force will explore the possibility of establishing joint purchasing and contracting agreements. Santa Barbara County Supervisor Michael Stoker said his county is also interested in contracting with Ventura County to share its new jail when it opens late next year.

Stoker said his county plans to build a $75-million jail to ease overcrowding, but construction could be delayed indefinitely because of financial constraints.

Officials also pledged Wednesday to campaign together against Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposal to shift $2.6 billion in property tax revenue from local governments to the schools. Ventura County stands to lose more than $50 million and Santa Barbara more than $10 million under Wilson’s plan. That in turn would translate into reduced services.

“We would have a balanced budget this year if they weren’t taking this money away,” Stoker said.

“I don’t think the citizens in our county even understand what’s happening,” Kildee said. “They’re going to pay the same amount of money in taxes, but they’re not going to get the services.”

On Tuesday, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors decided to move forward with plans to tax most homeowners $110 next year to help finance Fire Department services--a move that residents could still reject.

“I don’t think it has a prayer,” Kildee said of the assessment. “But we have to do things like this to get the public’s attention.”

Ventura and Santa Barbara officials agreed Wednesday to lobby their legislators to pressure Wilson into extending a temporary half-cent sales tax to help offset revenue losses.

The sales tax measure was imposed in 1991 to help balance the state budget. Wilson has been adamant that the levy be allowed to expire as scheduled June 30.

Meanwhile, Santa Barbara officials said Wednesday they are also exploring the possibility of joining with Ventura and other counties in passing an ordinance to withhold property tax revenue from the state.

H. Jere Robings, president of the Ventura County Alliance of Taxpayers, attended Wednesday’s meeting. He said he was pleased to hear that Santa Barbara might join in what some officials are now calling the “Boston Tea Party.”

“There’s a question of whether it’s even legal,” Robings said. “But it sure sends a strong message to Sacramento that you can’t keep taking our money to solve your budget problems.”