Residents Will Feel Budget Cuts in Many Areas, Edelman Says

The county Board of Supervisors is grappling with cutting nearly $1.6 billion from Los Angeles County’s budget--a monumental task that calls for programs to be sacrificed and thousands of employees to be laid off. Much of the county’s fiscal crisis is caused by the transfer--proposed by Gov. Pete Wilson and passed by the Legislature--of property tax money from local governments to state schools. The Legislature still must pass enabling legislation for the action to be final. Ed Edelman, who chairs the board and represents much of the San Fernando Valley, discussed the county’s situation with Times Staff Writer Aaron Curtiss.

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Question: You called the state budget a disaster for Los Angeles County. For the average person what does it mean?

Answer: Let me just go over the kinds of cuts we’re talking about. Museums--County Art Museum, Natural History Museum, Botanic Gardens--now may be open only on the weekend. Let’s get to libraries now. We have 87 libraries in our system, and we would have to close down 50 of them and reduce services in the remaining libraries by 50%. The number of homeless on the streets would increase because the state is telling us we can cut general relief. That would mean we would not give people money for food and shelter. If we cut general relief, people won’t have money for a cheap hotel, and there won’t be these nonprofit agencies to provide these services because we pay nonprofits.

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Q: To provide shelter?

A: That’s right. Let’s get to health care. We have 47 health centers, and half of them will close. These are where people get ambulatory care--like if you have a runny nose. So there will be more communicable diseases--pneumonia, tuberculosis, venereal disease. We have five comprehensive health centers and two or three of them will have to close. We are going to close one hospital. It could be Olive View Medical Center, it could be County-USC, it could be Harbor, it could be King. We now provide lifeguard services to the beaches. We’ll have to eliminate lifeguard service at eight beaches. We are talking about a layoff of total county employees between 8,000 and 9,000. How about Department of Public Social Services? Workload increases there will be about 20% with no increase in budget.

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Q: So more people on welfare, but fewer people to take care of them?

A: Right. In probation, 17 of 19 camps will close. There’s a bill to keep them open, and the state may come up with the money. But if we don’t have the money because it’s been stripped by the state, we’re not going to do it. How can we? I can go on and on. We could talk about departments like consumer affairs, which protects people who are ripped off. We could talk about weights and measures, which protects people when they buy food and goods. What we’re talking about are things people don’t see but they take for granted.

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Q: Every year things get whittled down more and more and we watch our quality of life deteriorate. What’s the sense of living in Los Angeles County anymore?

A: I think unless you have the opportunities to enjoy some of the good things in our county like the museums and the Hollywood Bowl or our beaches and parks and libraries, there is a point where I think you say, “Hey, I don’t want to live in this urban environment.”

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Q: County government is like the faithful dog that gets kicked all the time. Someone reading this is likely to point out that there are a lot of things wrong with the county. It is fairly easy to blame the current crisis on the state.

A: How the county is in this position is we have the most property tax that was given after Proposition 13 to help finance county government. Therefore they are taking the most from us because the state needs to solve its budget problem to help schools. They are cutting it out from our hide. They are taking our money and just shifting it to schools, rather than looking at some better solutions like extending the half-cent sales tax.

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Q: How much of this is Proposition 13 coming back to roost?

A: There is no question that Proposition 13 shifted the ball game to Sacramento. That is, our property tax was cut and the state had a surplus and they bailed us out for a while. Now that surplus is gone, so they can’t bail us out as much. I realize we have to give something up. But not this much.

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Q: When the state takes away money, the county is still in the position of having to provide services mandated by the state.

A: They are saying that they are relieving us of mandates, in fairness to them.

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Q: But how can you do that in good conscience? How can you morally say to somebody. . .

A: That we’re going to let you starve or we’re not going to provide a crossing guard? It’s illusory. You can’t count that money. But the state is telling us, “You’re getting money from us, fellas, because now you don’t have to do these things.” Legally you don’t, but morally you do.

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Q: You have said it may take three years to get out of the slump we’re in. Do you think we can turn around?

A: Oh, I think so. I think eventually we are going to turn around. Everything that goes up comes down, and what goes down, comes up. The state has to put itself in a proper fiscal shape and be sensitive to the need to maintain services during this time of economic problems.

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Q: Until things turn around, is this sort of wrangling over the budget going to be an annual occurrence?

A: Last year or the year before, the schools stood up and said, “You have got to stop taking money out of schools.” So they did. This year they have succeeded in taking it from counties. This year the counties are trying to stand up. It’s a tough go. We are fighting the governor, and we are fighting the leadership. People don’t recognize what counties do and what they mean. Maybe the only way to show them what counties mean is to have these cuts go through. I don’t want to see that happen, but it may just be that that has to happen for people to get the message.

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Q: So in the long-term, what should we be doing differently?

A: We need to look at how we can bring back to local government sufficient revenue. We need to take a look at a change in Proposition 13 and eliminate some of the inequities in it. I’m not saying eliminate it for homeowners. There is a reason to keep some limitation for residential property. But commercial and industrial property need to be reappraised periodically.

But we have to have some perspective and some vision and not just take these kinds of hits right now. We have to do it in a responsible way. We know counties have to take a hit. We’re willing to take a hit, but not at the degree that they’re doing it.

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Q: Assuming you have to put these cuts into effect, how do you balance services like prenatal care against libraries in depressed areas?

A: They are all important, clearly. Public health and safety are probably the most important. Again, if you don’t have the other ingredients to make a civilized community, people are going to want to leave.

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Q: Does it come down to a point where all we can expect is that if we get robbed, a sheriff’s deputy will take the report or if our house burns down a truck will be there to put the fire out?

A: I hope there is more to living in an urban area than that. Aristotle once said men come together to live in cities. They remain in cities in order to live the good life. Otherwise they could sort of live as hermits.

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Q: Are we living the good life anymore?

A: I would think that this budget threat would diminish the quality of life in Los Angeles County to a substantial degree. That’s why I’m fighting it so hard.

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Q: How much of this is crying wolf?

A: No more crying wolf. The wolf is at our door and we are about ready to be devoured.