Officials Heavily Criticize State Budget Plan : Services: The compromise spares some programs at the expense of others.

Even before the ink dried on the state budget agreement Tuesday, city and county officials in the San Fernando and nearby valleys criticized the compromise spending plan as a hodgepodge of trade-offs and questionable accounting that spares some municipal services at the expense of others.

Although it may be several days before the full measure of the state budget’s impact on the county can be tallied, Ed Edelman, chairman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, called the plan “a disaster ready to happen.”

Early analyses of the budget reveal:

* Los Angeles County fire stations in the Las Virgenes, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys threatened with closure will remain open. “We should be OK,” Deputy Los Angeles County Fire Chief William Zeason said.

* But libraries in the same areas may close and those that remain might operate only two or three days a week. “If the money goes, the service has to go,” County Librarian Sandra Reuben said.

* Funding cuts to the Sheriff’s Department are not likely to be so severe as to require the closure of jails in the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys, as officials had warned was possible.

* Potential further cuts in medical care means poor families may have a tougher time finding it. Officials continue to consider closing Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar to help balance Los Angeles County’s budget.

Edelman, who represents most of the San Fernando Valley, said that although the fire and sheriff’s departments were saved from potentially devastating cuts, those services were resurrected only by taking money from libraries, health centers and museums.

“What’s the sense of living in L. A. County?” Edelman asked.

Indeed, Los Angeles County services were the hardest hit by the state budget agreement, in part because many county administrators did not believe Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature would make good their threats to divert $2 billion in property taxes from cities and counties to help fund schools, and they are not ready to cope with such a cut.

Local cities, on the other hand, generally prepared for the worst and hoped for the best. From Westlake Village to Lancaster, officials prepared their annual budgets with the assumption that they would lose much of their property tax money.

“So we feel we are fairly well covered,” said Bill Ramsey, director of finance for Palmdale.

Even so, city officials were forced to trim their budgets to make ends meet. Westlake Village, for example, cut back on the number of sheriff’s deputies it puts on the streets and Agoura Hills may raise fees for recreation programs.

“We go through this every year and enough is enough,” said Santa Clarita City Manager George Caravalho. “The state needs to get its house in order and set clear guidelines so we can operate efficiently and effectively.”

Although the budget agreement calls for transferring proceeds from a half-cent sales tax to cities and counties to reduce the fiscal pain, local officials said they were not counting on the additional revenue. The state will extend the tax only until the end of the year. Voters will decide in November whether to extend it permanently.

The extra money would be earmarked for public safety services such as the district attorney’s office and police and fire protection.

Sheriff’s Lt. Jeff Springs said the state budget appeared to hold less bad news for his department than he expected, but he added that it is too early to tell what services sheriff’s officials would be able to save.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich said the sales tax does not guarantee that the budgets of law enforcement agencies will not be cut, because it provides additional revenue only for six months. After that, the cities and counties would again face cutbacks if voters do not extend the tax.

“We cannot turn our backs on law enforcement,” Antonovich said, saying that would bring on a “reign of terror.”

State legislators raided nearly every local tax district to balance their budget, but left alone those that support firefighting services. Fire officials had predicted they would have to close one-third of the county’s 127 fire stations if the state took the department’s share of property taxes.

Seven of those stations were in northern Los Angeles County.

But on Tuesday, Deputy Chief Zeason said it appeared that the department would not have to close any stations or lay off firefighters. “It sounds like they’ve taken care of the Fire Department,” Zeason said.

Not so lucky was the county library system, which already may have to stop buying books, magazines and newspapers as well as cut library hours in half. Librarian Reuben said she may have to close 54 of the county’s 87 libraries, some of which would be in the northern end of the county.

Health officials, likewise, were waiting to see how deeply the state budget agreement would cut their services. The county budget already proposes shutting down Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar and reducing hours at health centers in the San Fernando and surrounding valleys. And health officials speculated Tuesday that even larger cuts may be needed.