MISSION VIEJO : City Puts $2.1 Million Back in Its Coffers

City finance officials have put back into the budget about $2.1 million in property tax revenue they feared would be lost to state budget cutbacks last June.

The extra money means that city revenue exceeded spending by $2.5 million this year. The city general fund reserves are at $15.9 million, a figure that had council members smiling this week.

Referring to a consultant’s report released last November that warned of an impending fiscal crisis within the next seven years, Councilman Robert D. Breton said: “We were told that the city was headed toward being awash in red ink . . . but this shows that we are not in a fiscal crisis.”

The report indicated that the city wouldn’t be able to balance its budget within two years and would deplete its reserves by 1999 if the current rate of spending went unchecked.

It pointed to city projects such as its chain of recreation centers, which cost about $1 million annually, as a large drain on the budget.

None of the report’s conclusions are changed because of the $2.1 million added to the budget this year, said city finance chief Irwin Bornstein. According to the report, the city by 1999 will have overspent its reserves by at least $2.5 million, Bornstein said.

“There will still be a deficit in the reserves” even after adding the $2.1 million in property tax revenue.

Some council members have criticized the report as being short-sighted. Income from projects under development, such as a 290,000-square-foot mall, weren’t included in the report, Mayor Susan Withrow said.

“It also didn’t take into account the eventual expansion of the (Mission Viejo) Mall,” Withrow said. “My opinion is that (the report) was out of balance from the outset.”