SOUTH COUNTY : State Budget Cuts Hurt Park Districts

Orange County’s two small, independent park and recreation districts will be devastated by state budget cuts, officials said Thursday.

Both districts--the Capistrano Bay Park and Recreation District and the Silverado-Modjeska Park and Recreation District--will lose at least half their annual revenue and be hard-pressed to continue maintaining parkland and offer recreation programs, officials said.

Revenue the districts have traditionally received from property taxes has been shifted to help pay for public schools in the state budget recently approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Pete Wilson.

Officials at the 28-year-old Capistrano Bay Park and Recreation District in Dana Point learned this week that action in Sacramento means a loss of $1.36 million, or nearly 59% of its $2.4 million annual operating budget.

“This is going to gut the whole district,” said Bob Wilberg, who sits on the Capistrano district’s board of directors. “We’ve been had.”

Sally Murphy, a director of the Silverado-Modjeska Park and Recreation District that serves rural Silverado and Modjeska canyons in eastern Orange County, said cuts will cripple her district.

Budget cuts could not have come at a worse time for the six-square-mile Capistrano district. Not only is a move underway to consolidate special districts in South County, but the district has borrowed $6 million to buy new parkland and now has a heavy loan repayment for the next 20 years.

The district handles 15 parks and all the recreation programs within the city of Dana Point.

In Murphy’s district, which operates two community centers, a child care center and a small recreation program, officials must now make ends meet on a $20,000 budget rather than a $40,000 budget.

District officials blame their woes on a lack of political clout, but they plan to persevere.

“We are getting hit terribly hard, but this district has had tough times before and we survived them,” said Lynn Muir, a director of the Capistrano district.