Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Santa Clarita Forum Tackles Budget Troubles : Finances: Residents offer unusual solutions to the shortfall. Some want to stop issuing birth certificates.

To tackle Los Angeles County budget problems, participants in a Santa Clarita public forum suggested government reforms that included abolishing the U. S. Constitution, staffing prisons with federal troops and not issuing birth certificates.

The creative suggestions came after Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who hosted the forum, called for the state to not pull back $2.6 billion in property tax revenue from county governments. He urged the public to write their state legislators.

Los Angeles County is facing a $1.45-billion shortfall for the next fiscal year, said Chief Administrative Officer Harry Hufford.

The Monday night meeting was the third public forum that Antonovich has held on the county budget. The testimony will be part of the Board of Supervisors’ formal public hearing record and considered during budget deliberations.

“Get rid of the last-hired, first-fired practice. The last hired usually work the hardest and are paid the least,” said Santa Clarita resident Brad Bechtol, who called for streamlining government by trimming top- and middle-management positions.

That was one of dozens of suggestions from a crowd of more than 150 residents who attended the two-hour meeting at Santa Clarita City Hall.

Resident Gene Roddell said Los Angeles County hospitals should stop issuing birth certificates as a way of alerting federal and state government to the costs associated with children of illegal aliens.

Although Antonovich did not endorse the action, he earlier cited statistics that 63% of babies in county hospitals are born to unregistered alien parents and 11% of county jail inmates are illegals. Children born in the United States are citizens and qualify for government benefits including welfare and other aid programs.

Santa Clarita residents are concerned about the effect of the county deficit on services including police and fire, libraries and parks.

“How do I justify to my granddaughter that she can’t use the parks here her mother, grandfather and great-grandmother used? That the bad kids need the money for policing?” asked Newhall resident Ann Irvine.

Other participants said the U. S. military is now unnecessary and should be redeployed to either staff prisons or guard the border between the United States and Mexico to prevent the crossings of illegal aliens.

Moorpark resident Jack Cazier was one of three speakers who called for rejecting the existing U. S. Constitution.

Wearing a green jacket with “CITIZEN” printed in yellow block letters on the back, Cazier distributed a six-page newsletter that warned of communism and a world government and said he refused to use either a Social Security number or ZIP codes.

David Russell, a private efficiency expert, said the county should look at prior audit recommendations to see which have not been implemented. He also suggested reducing leasing space by having high-level employees share work areas.

“There’s a lot of money that could be saved there,” said Russell. “I’m sure they’d rather lose their nice office than lose their job.”