LAGUNA BEACH : Fiscal Surgeons Face Biting the Budget

After months of grim fiscal forecasts, the City Council will hold a hearing tonight focusing almost exclusively on the budget.

While tax hikes are mentioned as an alternative, the city staff is not recommending any increases at this time.

A previous council discussion about whether to boost taxes on such things as movie and festival admissions or to impose a special tax for police and fire services brought a wave of public protest.

Instead, the city staff is recommending that $1 million in the parking authority fund, which is earmarked for open space acquisition and to provide more public parking, be transferred into the city’s general fund for a variety of other uses.

As part of that recommendation, the staff is asking the council to increase parking permit prices and extend parking meter enforcement by two hours per day.

To balance the $32-million budget, however, the city would still have to make $800,000 in cuts.

Under the recommended alternative, six full-time positions would be eliminated. Since three of the positions are already vacant, three employees would be laid off.

Another option that is being offered, but not recommended, would involve eliminating 20 positions in the city, including a patrol officer and a Police Department dispatcher.

The belt tightening is required because the state is expected this year to take $1.8 million in property taxes normally collected by the city.

That anticipated loss combined with $750,000 cut last year means the city’s property tax revenues are expected to shrink by 30% in this and coming years.

Final adoption of the budget is scheduled for June 15.