County May Receive Sales Tax Windfall : Finances: Extra $3.4 million in Proposition 172 revenues is expected. Funds could benefit firefighters or pay for jail booking fees.

Ventura County could receive an unexpected $3.4-million boost in sales tax revenue for public safety, a spokesman with the state controller’s office confirmed Friday.

County leaders had predicted that Proposition 172’s half-cent sales tax revenues would total about $26 million a year.

But a state report puts Ventura County’s share at $29.4 million for the 1994-95 fiscal year.

“These numbers are based on the prior year figures and expected growth,” said Edd Fong, spokesman with the state controller’s office. “They will be pretty close to the actual numbers.”

Ken Maffei, president of the Ventura County Professional Firefighters’ Assn., said the increase is good news for firefighters, who were cut out of sharing $24 million that the county decided to spend on law enforcement, including the new Todd Road jail and the district attorney’s office.

“It’s certainly going to help our position,” Maffei said. “It will support what we’ve been saying all along, that there is money there for fire protection.”

County Supervisor Vicky Howard agreed that the extra revenue would bolster the firefighters’ chances of getting part of the funds.

Howard said the board is waiting for the firefighters to come up with a spending plan before it decides how much to give them.

“If the fire district gets their strategic plan together, I think some of the money should go to them,” Howard said. “It’s good to have this latitude to work with.”

The news was also greeted with enthusiasm by city leaders, who are pushing the supervisors to spend part of the funds to cover the cost of booking inmates into jail.

“This clearly says the county now has the money,” Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton said. “Now the question is, are they willing to give the cities their fair share?”

Leaders from each of the county’s 10 cities signed a letter to the supervisors earlier this week asking that some of the funding be spent on booking fees.

“I think this extra funding improves our case,” Thousand Oaks Councilman Frank Schillo said. “I think there’s enough there now to satisfy everyone.”

If the supervisors agree to cover the $120-per-inmate booking cost with state sales tax money, cities could afford to spend more on police and patrol cars, Schillo said.

The cities are asking for an initial $2 million to pay off booking fee debts, then about $600,000 a year to cover ongoing costs.

But Howard said she would rather use extra funds to balance the county’s budget.

“The cities keep wanting to ignore the fact that the county has been hit much harder than the cities,” she said. “I think we’re going to be looking at doing what other counties are doing with part of these funds, which is covering deficits.”