Supervisors Debate Cutbacks in Public Safety : Budget: Board discusses plans for 1994-95 fiscal year amid proposed state funding reductions and growing county deficit.

A mounting deficit and new state budget cuts could force Ventura County leaders to consider cutting into the criminal justice programs that they pledged to expand just three months ago, officials said Tuesday.

In a warning reminiscent of last year’s budget scare, a county analyst cautioned the Board of Supervisors that without reductions in public safety budgets, the board would have to slash 17% from all other agencies to balance the fiscal year 1995 spending plan. Even with criminal justice included, the cuts could total 6%.

That doesn’t even count the additional $5.3 million in reductions that Gov. Pete Wilson could force on the county with his latest budget proposals.

“We may have to look at all of the budgets, including public safety,” said Supervisor Maggie Kildee, who asked for further analysis. “It may be impossible to do with just what remains of the budget.”

But one supervisor warned that the fiscal crisis may yet disappear, especially if the governor and state Legislature reconsider proposed cuts.

“There’s no reason to panic and excite people until we get things settled down in Sacramento,” Supervisor Susan K. Lacey said. “We’re playing with people’s lives here, people’s safety.”

Last year, the board voted to lay off 27 firefighters and levy new taxes on homeowners, only to reverse the decisions when the state came through with the needed funds.

With Wilson facing reelection this year, Ventura County leaders had assumed that he would not attempt further reductions. But the governor, reportedly unable to borrow money until he reduced the state’s deficit, surprised them by announcing a stringent set of cuts last week.

Tuesday, on the opening day of their budget study sessions, the supervisors asked county agencies to submit funding requests with 10% and 18% reductions. Earlier, agency heads had expected to absorb only a 2% cut.

“There’s not going to be very much fun in the next month,” Chief Administrative Officer Richard Wittenberg told the board. “I’m confident everybody’s going to be unhappy.”

Even before Wilson’s announcement last week, the county faced a $16-million shortfall in the budget year starting July 1. Wittenberg proposed eliminating that deficit with $8 million from reserve accounts and $8 million in spending cuts.

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But finding places to cut has grown increasingly difficult because the county has discretion over less than one-third of the $488.2 million it will pay out next year, Wittenberg said.

For example, the county expects to spend $188.8 million on human services next year, but has control over only about $9.7 million of that. The rest comes from federal or state sources, or is limited by spending mandates.

In contrast, $95 million of the $179.2 million spent on criminal justice is within the county’s control.

In March, the county voted to put $24 million in special sales tax revenue toward hiring more sheriff’s deputies, prosecutors and public defenders. Some of the money, which was generated by the Proposition 172 half-cent tax, also went for the county’s new jail.

“We wanted to do what no other county has done and give that money to public safety,” Supervisor Vicky Howard said. “Now, with the things that have happened, it’s a different ballgame.”

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The same holds true for $4 million in excess Proposition 172 revenue, which city governments and Ventura County firefighters had hoped to use for their own needs.

Tuesday, politicians from every city in the county agreed to press the supervisors to fund the cities’ drug prevention programs and youth-related crime outreach services.

“We need to keep in mind that the cities voted for (Proposition) 172 and are not getting any of the money,” Thousand Oaks Councilman Frank Schillo said at a meeting of the Assn. of Ventura County Cities. “We need to act promptly on this.”

That proposal drew little support from the supervisors, overwhelmed by a day full of bad news on the budget.

“My comment to the cities,” Howard said, “they’re sitting there, the majority of them with surpluses. We clearly have no surplus; we have a very serious deficit.”

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Times staff writer Sara Catania contributed to this story.