ANAHEIM : Council to Decide on Spending, Layoffs

The City Council will consider Tuesday whether to lay off 10 workers, take $2 million from the city’s savings account and make spending cuts totaling $1.7 million to balance the city’s budget.

The budget for the fiscal year will be $133 million to cover spending between last July 1 and next June 30.

The cuts, made necessary when the council in June unexpectedly refused to extend the city’s 2% utility tax past its Sept. 30 expiration date, are not as drastic as the $6 million in reductions that city administrators originally said would be needed if the tax was defeated.

City Manager James D. Ruth said the city is going to receive $1.7 million more from the state than he originally expected and $800,000 more from its investments.

The city will then take $2 million from its $16-million savings accounts and $300,000 more from its golf courses to balance the budget and avoid deeper cuts in the city’s services and work force.

“My job is to present a balanced budget,” Ruth said. “I’ve done that.”

If approved, 10 city workers will be laid off Sept. 9. Four work at the Anaheim Convention Center, while six work for the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department.

Thirty-three other jobs left vacant by resignations and retirements during the past year have been eliminated, Ruth said.

Including these cuts, the city’s work force will have shrunk from 2,143 in mid-1991 to approximately 1,900, Ruth said.

When Ruth originally drew up the current budget, he assumed the council would extend the utility tax until at least September, 1994.

Three of the five council members had promised to support the tax, which placed a levy on all water, gas, telephone and electric bills, raising about $8 million for the city annually.

But Councilman Fred Hunter, who had been a strong supporter of the tax since its inception two years ago, unexpectedly voted against extending it past its expiration date next month.

He said he would only vote for the tax if most of it was used to hire more police officers.

Ruth said the “scary” scenario is the next fiscal year, when $11.8 million will have to be cut if city’s economic picture doesn’t brighten or the utility tax is not re-implemented.

Because the council has made it clear that Police and Fire Department budgets will not be cut--they consume 55% of the city budget--libraries, parks and other programs will be drastically cut next year if nothing changes, Ruth said.

“That will be devastating,” Ruth said.

The council meeting begins at 5 p.m. at City Hall, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd.