Another Fiscal Showdown Ahead : Government: County budget planners again wrestle with making ends meet. But this year, some say, the necessary cuts will ‘really hurt.’

A shudder ran through the boardroom as Ventura County leaders listened to the latest budget forecasts: $10 million in state cuts and $16 million in deficit spending.

“This is going to be our worst year ever,” Supervisor Vicky Howard lamented.

A year earlier, Howard called it “one of the most painful moments that we’ve had.”

And the year before that, Chief Administrative Officer Richard Wittenberg warned of a “total tidal wave” of cuts.

Each year, county leaders start their budget deliberations blasting the state and damning the deficit. And each year, their budget grows just a little, the libraries and fire stations remain open, and the county walks away with kudos for fiscal management.

“I have listened to the same sad scenario year after year after year,” said H. Jere Robings, a taxpayer advocate who recently ran for the Board of Supervisors. “And they always seem to be in a state of panic.”

What makes 1994 any different?

“I think the county has never been in a position to do the things that really hurt across the board,” Supervisor Maggie Kildee said. “I think this year, as we look at 18% cuts, you are going to close down counters, you are going to lay people off.”

She admitted that the board may have panicked last year when state cuts threatened to shut down libraries and fire stations. The supervisors voted to make the reductions, only to have state legislators relent at the last minute.

But, she noted, the state still took $36 million out of the Ventura County budget last year and wants even more this year.

“It isn’t like people crying wolf,” Kildee said. “It’s like trying to get the best information we can: What if we cut 8%, what if we cut 18%?”

This week, supervisors face difficult hearings with health care administrators, already hit hard by state cuts, and criminal justice leaders, unwilling to surrender any of the money that supervisors have promised them.

At first glance, Ventura’s budget situation does not seem that bad.

Early projections show $479.9 million in spending from the county’s general fund, the core of the budget. That figure is actually up 10% from last year. Staffing projections, at 4,771 full-time employees, are also up some 300 bodies from the 1993 budget figure.

But county analysts say the comparisons are misleading. The projections reflect new money and employees added to the budget for public safety. The half-cent sales tax that voters approved in Proposition 172 provides for those new hires above the normal budget.

What’s more, they argue that the budget would be even larger had the county not made $44 million in cuts since 1990. Those reductions lopped more than 200 jobs from the payroll.

Projections also show a growing gap between spending and revenue. Even after using up leftover money from the present budget, the county still needs $16 million more to balance its budget for the fiscal year that begins Friday, a task that is increasingly hard.

“This is our fifth year of this,” Wittenberg said wearily at a budget session last week. “What is happening is that there isn’t enough money.”

Plus, the county has a smaller base to cut from and has already slashed the most nonessential jobs, said Michael Saliba, executive director of the Ventura County Taxpayers Assn.

The cumulative effects of state reductions and the sluggish economy have worn down Ventura County’s ability to respond quickly, Wittenberg said.

Moreover, the county did not anticipate state cuts in an election year and asked department heads to expect only a 2% reduction. Now the agencies are calculating the effects of 8% to 18% losses.

Complicating the matter is the supervisors’ decision, barely three months ago, to pledge $24 million in sales tax revenue for new sheriff’s deputies and prosecutors. The politically popular administrators in those departments don’t plan to give any of the money back.

“I’m a simple person, and I believe a commitment is a commitment,” County Sheriff Larry Carpenter said.

And relief from the state Legislature seems unlikely to materialize this year, supervisors said after a visit to Sacramento.

“It is, without a doubt, the worst situation I have ever seen with the least sympathy from the Legislature that I have ever seen,” Supervisor Vicky Howard said.

Last year, with libraries and fire services at stake, communities across the state complained loudly enough to get relief.

This year’s cost-cutting initiatives are targeted at low-income health care and administrative costs--and only affect a handful of counties. Ventura County is affected by three key initiatives.

“The way they’re doing it now is divide and conquer,” Wittenberg told board members. “Some counties are just laying low, because they don’t have any of the three strikes.”

And the cuts are targeted mainly at counties, not cities.

County officials say the key to solving the perennial budget crisis in Ventura County and California in general is to restructure the way government runs.

“I think there is too much government in the state of California,” Supervisor Susan Lacey said. “We have to change the way we deliver services.”

Saliba agrees. “The time has now come for the county to take a look at what businesses the county should be in,” he said.

Study Sessions

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors will hold study sessions this week on the proposed 1994-95 budget. All meetings will be held at the supervisors’ meeting room in the County Government Center. The schedule for government departments:

Tuesday, 1:30 to 5 p.m.

General Services Agency

Information Systems Department

Health Care Agency

Correction Services Agency

Wednesday, 1:30 to 5 p.m.

Courts / Indigent Defense

District Attorney

Grand Jury

Public Defender

Sheriff

Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Public Social Services Agency

Capital Projects

Special Accounts & Contributions

Fire Protection District

Library Services Agency

Public Works Agency

County Clerk & Recorder