An Alternative to Massive Budget Cuts : L.A. County: Keep clinics and libraries open with ‘pet project’ money.

Los Angeles County is facing its third bad budget in a row. Today, the Board of Supervisors will begin grappling with an estimated $524-million budget gap, including a $340-million shortfall handed down by Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature.

Today’s newspapers could reprint the headlines from 1993 and ’92 about a sea of red ink threatening to sink our already flooded facilities. Once again, thousands of layoffs threaten the 43,000 county employees represented by Local 660 of the Service Employees International Union. Once again, 10 million residents risk losing public services they have every right to rely on.

This time, however, a newcomer is swinging the county budget ax. Chief Administrative Officer Sally Reed has said she is a “level-headed technocrat willing to make tough choices if that’s what it takes to clean up the financial mess.

Shutting down libraries and museums, hospitals and clinics, parks and pools isn’t tough. It’s mean. There’s nothing tough about picking on people who are least able to defend themselves.

Fortunately, there is a sane alternative to massive layoffs and service cuts. The union has just completed a study of the fragile county economy, and we concluded that Reed’s Draconian measures are unnecessary. Here are some of the budget projections I’ll present to the supervisors today.

* $20 million is already budgeted for the five supervisors to spend on pet projects. As in past years, each has been given an “allowance” to allocate at his or her discretion. Supervisors traditionally use the reserve to restore shortfalls in funding for various services, and we expect them to continue.

* $80 million was available in the funded-interest account, a little-known cash reserve. Last month, the Sheriff’s Department closed a shortfall with $45 million from this account. Wise economic practices dictates using the remaining $35 million.

* County officials have already found $100 million in other accounts besides the funded interest reserve. These unallocated reserves may once have served a valid purpose but now are little more than slush funds. An independent audit would also restore some credibility to a financial system that is widely distrusted by residents and a laughingstock in Sacramento.

* $220 million can be raised by selling or leasing 1% of the county’s unused or undeveloped real estate. The Citizens Commission on Government Efficiency conservatively estimates that the property holdings are worth $22 billion. When hospitals and libraries are closing, it is no time to tie up our assets in vacant lots.

* $530 million is available from Washington for outpatient treatment at county medical facilities. Wilson complains that Washington fails to pay for alleged harm that undocumented immigration causes the state economy, but he refuses to allow the county access to more than half a billion dollars in federal health-care funds.

* Local 660 also has identified $30 million in savings set aside for overtime payments that workers agreed not to collect. Originally, $96 million was set aside for what turned out to be a $66-million expense. Also, the Sheriff’s and Probation departments have identified $30 million in administrative expenses that could be saved.

If all these measures were adopted, we could have a budget surplus--just in time to restore life to departments that have been hacked to pieces during previous cuts.

For three years, Local 660 has demonstrated its commitment to budget alternatives that make the most of our economic, political and human resources. It’s time to end short-sighted policies. Closing a clinic, library or museum may save a few dollars today, but the long-term results always have a hidden price tag.

We believe that the toughest challenge facing county employees and administrators is to provide improved services to meet public needs every day, even during recessions. The toughest challenge for politicians is to say and do the right thing, even when it is unpopular. Don’t blame immigrants, the poor or the children for this crisis: Proposition 13 sowed the seeds of today’s devastation.

Local 660 knows that Southern California continues to feel the results of a very real recession. But we believe this county’s biggest shortage is leadership.