Piggy-Bank Protest Targets State Drain on Cities’ Funds : Finances: Coalition says local municipalities are forced to ‘bite the bullet’ to help balance California’s budget.

A coalition of Southeast area cities used a big pink piggy bank to dramatize their complaint that the state is taking the cities’ redevelopment money to help balance its budget.

City officials put oversized checks, representing more than $17 million in forced contributions to the state budget, in the piggy bank Thursday in Signal Hill. The protest was aimed at Gov. Pete Wilson and state legislators.

“Why is this pig fat? Because all of our money is going into it,” said Todd W. Argow, South Gate’s chief administrative officer. “It represents the fat in the state’s budget, which they aren’t willing to cut.”

The city of Paramount will donate $150 to truck the pig to Sacramento, where city leaders will hold a protest Wednesday.

The $17 million in cardboard checks were copies of real checks that cities were required to pay by last Friday out of their redevelopment budgets to the state’s Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund.

Legislation passed in connection with the 1992-93 state budget authorized the collection of the payments, which were supposed to be made only once.

But city officials have been told they can expect another “one-time-only” payment to the education fund in the upcoming state budget.

That announcement has caused an uproar among city officials who claim their cities will be left disheveled as money intended for street repairs, tree trimming and new development is waylaid by legislators.

Cities will also be forced to postpone affordable housing projects, cut parks and recreation program, and lay off staffers because of the cuts in redevelopment agency funds, according to press releases distributed at the protest.

“The governor and state legislators have absolutely run amok,” said South Gate Councilman Albert Robles. “Ultimately it is us, the cities, who have to bite the bullet and balance the state’s budget.”

To balance the state budget, Cerritos Mayor Sherman Kappe suggested legislators continue a half-cent sales tax that is scheduled to expire this year. And all city officials in attendance seemed to agree with Commerce City Manager Louis Shepard’s suggestion that the state should implement a five-year budget plan.

“We can’t even work on next year’s budget because we don’t know what the state will do next,” said Signal Hill City Manager Douglas LaBelle.

Among the 25 Southeast cities whose redevelopment agencies took the biggest hit were:

* Cerritos, $2,640,955. Road reconstruction, traffic signal upgrades and security lighting in parks have been put on hold.

* Long Beach, $2.2 million. Library hours reduced, parks and recreation budget cut.

* Santa Fe Springs, $2,010,717. No immediate cuts, but $1 million borrowed from city’s low-income housing fund to cover shortfall.

* Montebello, $1,473,145. Impact not available.

* Compton, $1,309,920. Impact not available.

* Pico Rivera, $1,117,558. Budget for park and roadway improvements will be cut.